you're alluding to would have been achieved anyway so wife of koskie well first of all ms boyko who might be kidding because if you look into the amnesty it seems to be the call soviet toil traditional kind of an amnesty touching up on the vulnerable groups of prisoners pregnant women elderly people minors women with small children and so on and so forth and none of the last moment there is a month on chew include into the amnesty a specific list such crimes as hooliganism and mass riots and i would like to stay on for just one more question his imprisonment imprisonment had a symbolic value it was always presented as a sort of reflection of how bad the human rights to shine in russia supposedly was i wonder if you attach the same symbolism to his release does it mean that let's say political climate in the country may be changing simply because he is being set

free while human rights watch is an organization never said the case of other symbolizes everything that's wrong with human rights in russia in the uk quite to the opposite. it's a very last rites of case and there are many other cases that we've documented solidly and that clearly demonstrate that the redgrave human rights abuses including political money policing of justice that are happening in the russian federation given that so many private profile people have been involved in political activity have been released early do you think that signifies any change in the way the kremlin operates or indeed the political climate in the country while it's largely the revolving door of russian political just is a revolving door of trumped up charges where you have some.

political prisoners being released in one single week just before christmas just before the holidays. to celebrate but done at the same time although people still remain in jail on three charges if we could stay on the subject of what our cost in sochi olympic because you you mentioned that you believe that this was part of the political campaign and manipulation and it's interesting the holocaust he himself was asked about it during the press conference and i want to play this question by b.b.c. for you are you encouraging people to really fix it you stay away so essentially the holocaust a man who was released from prison thirty six hours ago after spending their year as the first one of the first questions he is being asked is whether sochi olympics should be boycotted on not and i think that's in itself a rather peculiar question but my question to you is whether you think that's what

human rights campaign in russia has come to that it's not about human rights it is now about taking a stab at the government or better or putting personally well ms follicle first and foremost you are actually the one who such a political manipulation project that i didn't start a public relations project and i'm a relation with. you know very close i'm not only going to say approach but in i'm not sure whether you know it's a paulus matar for human rights watch now call for a boy quote of sports or cultural events so all the musician god forbid another cold like quality of the your game is ation is very. after if in the using the image of sochi olympics and i want to quote you something that your colleague said rachel done for the deputy director for europe and central asia. for

human rights watch just published an opinion piece on your website calling on readers to quote brace yourself for what could come after international spotlight leaves and i wonder what are you bracing yourself for d.c. . members will be rounded up again people will be able lynched on the streets mall hunger. so does that he's not going to go back to russia because he does not knew what a huge would remain a dream own if he's on russian soil and i was it. doesn't really help live up to russia and unless he gets very small that security. this is not what he said he said that as of now he doesn't have guarantees of him being able to leave russia for our foreign countries for example for germany he needs to visit that country for example because of his mother and that he isn't afraid of traveling to russia because he's afraid that does anyone actually as you are letting you know you are speaking for him that he never said that he said that indeed there are some legal

issues with his skis that have not been subtlety have both he has never heard of this but i'm going to share that while holder of course he is in germany over. his not going to go to jail now goes without saying i'm also not a free for the two women from the pool i don't think that they're going to be sent back to jail as soon as the olympics so what are you what i see all of the rage of is that it. looks in the other direction from russia is this is no longer on russia then the unprecedented crowd of civil society has been witnessing is going to intensify that's exactly what the afraid of because now they can actually see even more specific though what exactly do you mean i assume you mean the law that came into force about them well you know if i go i am not only valid but i would agree that the law is indeed in the all. and untalented this

piece of legislation which is why don't we call entropy to russia's international obligations and freedom of association this non-governmental organisations get warning. advocacy to register poor in asia such legislation exists in many other countries such as for example the united states and britain there is a similar law as well tomorrow no have you run a fire actually did i actually did and organizations that do receive foreign funding have to register with the state very well use the sions that receive calling and asked on behalf of one oranges over four in principle and that's a very different story here in russia if an advocacy group receives even a penny kopek of foreign funding even though it's completely independent from which dog you trust to register the source so why are they so love what is it doing there

barriers of all as i did being a native speaker of russian and a resident of russia in this language in this cultural context agent means for inspiring to live here i think the connotations are the same as in english for an age in english doesn't sound preachy as well but people use these terms quite often cheers russians opponent in russian it means poetry lawyers months the civically to demonize independent that to this what i would like to ask you something different . this year justice ministry has decided to look how complying with this law and they in the shade if i'm not mistaken i think around fourteen cases of legal proceedings against various angelos and in one out of fourteen cases those al gore's actually won legal proceedings in court against the state and this is in a country that according to human rights watch has no independent judiciary. where

the state prosecutors you just sat and yours how would that be possible well i wouldn't want to ruin you have some dope of the problem as the first to wall the prosecutor's office actually launched this massive campaign of the units of aggressive inspections and over one thousand organisations rick choked across the country and in some cases those inspections were just completely over the top where activists were all asked for their correspondence when the prosecutors wanted access to their computers and so on and so forth but then dozens of groups received warnings i direct orders to rich is not i want to corps and one depressed sittings for it in a sense that's one of the things that sort of makes me wary because they waited for the foreign agents lawyers that the law was adopted and then the minister of justice himself so he was unhappy with the law he did not know how the minister

would find it possible to implement it because they were almost all of it and was several months nothing was happening then in two thousand thirteen in february president putin has a meeting with the federal security service and the meeting suddenly says i'm bodily this law non-governmental organizations how come i'm not seen any implementation and i saw as he says that. the inspection competing is being launched an older lady who from my direct question was. a listen to this so this is happening and organizations are taken to court and they start losing their cases and the picture is really very grim and then in mid july president putin says in the face of very strong international criticism they are going to reconsider will possibly among the law and once he sells that out some organisations started winning the i.p.l. is and that's what you are referring to. you see the shadow of mr putin in any

single case in russia but miss loach and i we have to take a very short break now when we come back their russian government is often accused of using the law selectively against its critics but why did they break the law so easily that's coming up in a few moments on will depart. the cool.

speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on all t.v. reporting from the world talks of the ip interview intrigued. arabic to find out more visit arabic don't call.

to the. seasons he adds but there's already been plenty to celebrate this december this month shows how the future tense so lazy sets in stone cold to make movies with an instant messenger and their exoskeleton mates likely to get really. welcome back to all the parts where discussing the state a few moderates in russia with time election not the russian program director at

human rights watch. just before the break we were talking about printing being implicated in pretty much everything in it in russia and that not everything has the high profile cases and told that smith. well i think if he if you look around they have been the level of paternalism is very high in this country and it seems that whether he likes it or not he is getting dragged on into. each and every case and i wonder whether it is sometimes the human rights campaigners that can. to this very trying because when we have. controversy with greenpeace protesters they had of greenpeace international was calling on putin to intervene now or we are discussing the horror costy case and your again pinning that on to putin and his personal and visions the arrive all the questions about you know whether those goals should be behind bars where again addressed to aren't people like you or at

least putting putin sort of play of words onto the pedestal he's just the president why to treat him as this super being well that's a very unfortunate situation most boys call but the problem at a certain poor and the only we can resolve a problem is to address putin and see what actually happens because the judicial system does not blame him for are trying living their lives is the system that mr putin after the. new clause this past week amidst all the me joy saying about the realism of political prisoners human looked like santa claus sitting under the j. gansett mom owns christmas tree in the kremlin handing out gifts of my mother because. he also. told us exactly how it looked like and she knew one thing that i actually wanted to raise talking about political trust is just several issues to

hold of course finally became a free man and after the in the top russian thousand and two upset by the name of guinea the call was sentenced to three years of the president in a clearly political case so it is the rewarding the world russian justice harder. ground in drago well that's an interesting point that. theories because at his news conference in berlin. he was asked whether he feels any bitterness about spending saw much time behind bars and. i would like to play what what he said at. the shoot back sure when i was running a large business group in business i was fully aware. that i was a player in

a very tough game just commuter me. conditional before she knew once the game you turned against me to reach became even tougher shoot him now i think he's being a bit vague here you can interpret that in many different ways but what i think he's saying is that he believes that selective justice was applied to him but he also recognizes that he did break the law and i think that applies to many of the people that you call political prisoners. activists of greenpeace activists some of the defendants in the case and i wonder if you believe that the political nature of their actions justifies them breaking the law while we're talking about the left of prosecution and disproportionate prosecution and there's the minister important thing here in the case of mr hodder well yes he says i've been playing rugby games but then at the same time we all knew that everyone who became rich as

a result of russia's privatisation was breaking certain rules because the rules were very sort of lose and fast virtually nonexistent. so if harder call to get was sent to jail then i guess everyone else should be in the same jail with him even though to say that russian justice is not selective you mentioned that especially back in two thousand and three the rules of the game were not very clearly defined and what what our cost was locked out for you know was probably being done by many are there all the guards but now the state made it absolutely clear that it's not going to tolerate breaking the law neither in respect of greenpeace activists nor in with regards to protesters attacking the police so do you think that people who defend human rights in russia protesters activists do they have to change their actions now to make sure that they simply protect themselves legally from the prosecution by the state will only one naturally have

to abide by it. war on the other hand the laws themselves should be actually in line with relevant international standards the first thing that poor did when he returned to the kremlin was to run through the call him and a raft of laws which really detrimental to russian several and i'm talking in particular about being new restrictions on demonstrations the new restrictions on freedom of information including specifically freedom of information online and the restriction on a rigid and it's very difficult for civil society to operate i wonder if you're really following the social trends that we have now seen in russia because for many years the number of volunteers in russia has been on the increase and in fact the charities aid foundation just reported that last year russia made it to the global top ten by the number of people volunteering twenty five thousand people volunteering their time for the olympics what is that if not a sign of

a strengthening civil society because in a country like russia where the sort of the fatigue of any collective action is very strong after communism years you know that when people are actually taking charge of their life when they are participating in gauging in civil societies or just sunday volunteer movement is great and i just wonderful to see lou level learn trip initiatives flowing in the saudis actually. to see what's. problematic here is that the government is basically trying to split the civil society into the good civil society the barred civil society and the good one is the one which is doing things possibly helping people without criticizing the government the bollard one is the one who is trying to bring about policy changes and actually ramey de this problem. actually trying to break the law and i think we

can hear a transition to the case of police arrived to men. as of that band or just released on on the amnesty and dancing in the altar wasn't the most controversial action there were also famous for doing some stunts that involved nudity and even something that looked like fornication in public i wonder i would like to ask you a personal question because you have a long record of defending human rights in russia do you think there is any limit to self-expression of political activist well rid of the expression search is not limitless it can be chilly restricted the restrictions of reasonable when you need seeing the women from pussy riot group they had the right thing would be you know i see the rusted on trawick on disproportionate charges because they buy new means perpetrated after all and in is with the hate more

than against russian which had talks with it it just didn't know what happened it's something they did no one. really understands and we'll see awful again is moved to they did but really it was a little unsettling want to be to kids it was really not fair judgment at all and he said it time and again and even did richest draw it administered to me and sentenced to a. human rights watch would not intervene and we're. going to scream to. the court system in russia we washed all of that particular kids very closely and yes it's a clear example of political manipulation of justice and the ruling. muslim human rights watch operates in many countries and if you look around the world this issue of ethnic and especially of religious hatred is extra. only

prominent these days it's a major source of human rights violations in the middle east it's a major driver for wars now in syria in libya in afghanistan in iraq so i wonder if you believe that in this particular case the right to offend let's say religious sensitivities is more important important than the right not to be a found that i think i said it but i don't mind repeating it again. put. her actually trolling to disproportionately charges because they did nor want perpetrate an act of paula goodness that women want to understand by their actions and in fact during their own pretrial hearing they actually apologized to believers if those believers feelings were a found it so if they apologize that done probably they recognize that that actions were a viewed as a phone call in russian or what have you all that's not like i loved what the

signal and central mosque not at all i became tuned to the pussy riot case only one of the women were actually taken into custody prior to that one they just have their whatever you want to call it which is second performance which is second political stunt as a russian orthodox i was like. it probably wasn't a good idea to do this in the church again i'm russian orthodox but they should not have gone to jail does the only thing i'm trying to say earlier imagine some of the positive developments a rise of volunteering people being more engaged people taking to the streets i don't know if you would agree but i think that some of the political discourse in russia has become more diverse compared to let's say five or six years ago why something like that is not noticed by an international organization like yourself

that is so devoted to the promotion of human rights and building the civil society but it is actually a chance to both three we're here in this room i spoke to a call of yours from russia to india knew about this situation with people with disabilities in russia. first of all no one has to recognize the very nautical progress on the past two years especially on deposit with russia's ratifying the convention on disability and even though there is to then the serious problem in progress is tough on italy in place even more so the are really excited elitists and socked that russia is hosting the olympic games in addition to the olympic games in salt shape because last time russia hosted the olympics as you may remember even nineteen eighty and the soviet union refused to hose the panels and. there are new does able to people in this country so

yes a lot has changed on line in the in saying that russia is the seen as the so if you are that is it that's really good to hear because i think some of your have alliance wouldn't suggest that because you use allusions to soviet union quite a lot of but given your misgivings about the human rights situation in russia i wonder if you could have made that russia played a positive role in the snowden affair because if it wasn't for russia he would. hooley have been lock locked out long ago and probably for a much longer do you rationed. well once noted in the second. major statement saying that all the country that he had trusted with his requests. into his claims objective decisions and this is apparently what russia has done and that's newton and temporary refuge in this country this same challenge it's rather peculiar while given refuge chill while new whistleblower laws.

one who is drawing to. an escape from the s.s. or its is being apparently sue of it russia is at the same putin says much russia on its own whistleblower there is this harassment a whistleblower is going on in the country including the whistleblower it's insulted there is a huge crush on environmentalist groups and own independent media that are trying to cover all the developments relevant to the olympics construction and they're being critical well i think what that shows is that human rights issues probe probably a major problem not just in russia but in many countries around the world and i guess that means that human rights watch has will have a lot of adopted in the future unfortunately we have to leave it here because we are out of time i appreciate your time and this spirited discussion and if you like the show please join us again same place same time here in the wilds of.

six treat are still strategically she told china russia. and undercover team of journalists trying to release wiki leaks documents about the how the united states is trying. their. made me a global media more pro-american they encounter fear ignorance and pressure. the country blocks the way to information freedom. media stop on our t.v.

. the beginning of the long politic night moxon he faces full island life. in sanaa and the temptation. to douglas last for six months. there are more polar bears than people. and it's as easy to hide the rifle as a scooter. because the island is so in a special there are no indigenous people but there are all those who do choose this frozen life. this era as could be read about if you're on the conductor. if you got nothing and you got the opportunity. to start to construct your own little current society. no want to be bit

gives don't want to be gangsters you don't want to be drug deals they don't want that bull without the tiniest detail but k.k. maybe we can see. you just needs a hundred dollars and i hope i was in the hood. and what a. coup for a fellow i. said about the. i don't want to die i just really do not want to die young young. one of the twenty fourteen olympics what's this place like why is this so special as the russian resort prepares to welcome the world power the games should be in the city's present and future what more sochi will bring you this is the moment they're reporting from a very cold and snowy windy mountain is beyond the olympics. starting

germany the first on our team. there on considers a bill on accelerating its nuclear program if new u.s. sanctions are imposed as western powers urgent to fulfill an agreement brokered in geneva seen as a key breakthrough of twenty thirteen. a child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all privacy is on the verge of extinction warns edward snowden as he takes to the british airwaves giving an alternative to the queen's speech and wishing everyone a merry christmas. and competing is nice and winning trumps it all say athletes as they ready themselves for the sochi winter olympics stay with us as we report on one paralympic contender who's using that gold fever to turn tragedy into purpose.