1. Human Rights in Russia: How do we evaluate the record. Dr
Human Rights in Russia: How do we evaluate the record? Dr. Jonathan Weiler Global Studies, UNC Chapel Hill

2. Russia’s Contested Democracy in the 1990s
1993 Referendum on ‘Shock Therapy’
1993 ‘Bloody October’
1993 Constitutional Referendum
1993, 1995 Parliamentary Elections
1996 Presidential Elections

4. Human Rights Problems in the 1990s
Prison conditions
Violence against women
Mistreatment of “dark-skinned” migrants
Hazing in the Armed Forces
Chechnya

5. Key Human Rights Organizations
Memorial
Soldiers’ Mothers
Glasnost Foundation
Human Rights Ombudsman – Sergei Kovalov
Moscow Helsinki Group
Thousands of others

6. What do we mean by human rights?
First Generation Rights – civil and political rights
Electoralism
Second Generation Rights – economic and social rights
Inter-personal violence?

7. Economic Collapse,
- Economy contracted by as much as forty percent - Tens of millions thrown into poverty - Mass privatization – “loans for shares” - Endemic corruption - Decline in life expectancy - Rosefielde: “three million excess deaths”

8. The Oligarchs Boris Berezovsky Mikhail Friedman Vladimir Gusinsky
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Vladimir Potanin
Alexander Smolensky
Vladimir Vinogradov

9. Illiberal Democracy competitive elections
pervasive violation of rights
Breakdown of rule of law
Endemic corruption
Zakaria 1997: we like Liberal Democracy because we like Liberalism and “democracy is flourishing; constitutional liberalism is not.”

10. The Putin Era

11. Decline of Political Competition
Parliament Controlled by United Russia
Putin faces no serious challengers – wins ~80% of the vote in 2000, 2004
Essentially names his successor – Dmitri Medvedev
Abolishes direct elections for governors

12. Terrorism in Russia Apartment Building Bombings, 1999
Nord-Ost Theater, 2002
Beslan School Massacre, 2004
Suicide Bombings
"We'll follow terrorists everywhere….Should we catch them in a sh*t-house, we'll kill them in a sh*t-house.“
"We allowed corruption to undermine our judicial and law enforcement system. We showed ourselves to be weak. And the weak get beaten."

13. Crackdown on Media, Civil Society
End of Independent Television
New laws limiting independent organizations
Arrests of potential opposition figures – Khodorkovsky, Nemtsov

14. Murder of Journalists Yeltsin Era – 67 murdered (1993-1999)
Putin/Medvedev era – 98 murdered ( )
Dmitry Kholodov, Anna Politkovskaya
According to Committee to Protect Journalists, only Algeria and post-invasion Iraq were deadlier for journalists

15. Russia’s Economic Revival
Real Income doubled
Poverty cut in half
Inflation stable (was 2000% in 1992)

16. According to Freedom House…
There is only one region in the world where political rights and civil liberties have been in continuous decline since the wide swath of territory made up of countries of the former Soviet Union, with the exception of the Baltic states.

17. Key Question
Is Illiberal Democracy better than authoritarianism if people are materially better off in the latter?