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Soldiers’ Mothers Appeal
Verdict
Lawyers for Soldiers’ Mothers, a Russian human rights group that campaigns against brutality and abuse in the Russian army, has given The St. Petersburg Times special access to evidence it claims shows forced prostitution in the ranks. Soldiers’ Mothers say testimonies by former recruits point to a system in which new recruits were sent to sell sex on the streets of St. Petersburg by older recruits who then extorted the money. “Those who did not have money and failed to give it to the senior recruits on demand were sent to sell themselves on the street at the Catherine Garden,” reads one testimony obtained by Soldiers’ Mothers. “They could either use one of the lists of clients which were always available from the older recruits, or try and pick someone up using their own devices.” The garden surrounding the monument of Catherine the Great overlooking Nevsky Prospekt is a notorious cruising area for those who seek the services of male prostitutes. Soldiers’ Mothers is appealing an order handed down by the city’s Kuibyshevsky Federal Court to pay 22,000 rubles ($892) in compensation to military unit No. 3727 of the Russian Interior Ministry’s signals corps after the human rights groups publicized evidence it says it obtained that alleges forced prostitution in the unit. The unit sued Soldiers’ Mothers for damage to its professional reputation and won the case earlier this month. The case was closed to media by the judge because of the sensitivity of the issues involved. Soldiers’ Mothers and their lawyers have asked for the names of the witnesses and alleged victims to be withheld to protect their privacy. The source who ... |
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| Spectators watch from the shore of the Neva River as Swedish driver Jonas Andersson speeds past to victory on Saturday in the Sixth Grand Prix of Russia, a stage in the 2008 U.I.M. Formula One Power Boating World Championship. |
TNK-BP Dispute May Be Taken to Court
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Barring ‘Miracle,’ Expat Paper eXile Is ‘Dead’
MOSCOW — The eXile, Moscow’s notorious English-language alternative biweekly, is shutting down after its investors became frightened by a government inspection and withdrew their funding, the newspaper’s editors said. “The paper is dead, unless a miracle happens,” Mark Ames, The eXile’s founder and editor, said by telephone. The newspaper missed an issue this week after its financial backers “got scared away by the government focusing its attention on it,” and now The eXile is very likely to cease publication entirely, Ames said. Ames declined to give details of the newspaper’s finances, although he noted, “The situation sucks.” Underlining the direness of The eXile’s finances, its web site announced an online fundraiser Wednesday in order to keep its server running. The news of The eXile’s apparent demise comes less than one week after its offices were visited by four inspectors from the Federal Service for Mass Media, Telecommunications and the Protection of Cultural Heritage, who asked about the newspaper’s relationship with writer and opposition leader Eduard Limonov, a Kremlin critic who writes a column for The eXile and appears on its masthead. Although Ames described the inspectors as “civilized” and “polite,” their promise to inspect The eXile for extremist content was apparently enough to scare off the newspaper’s financial backers, Ames and co-editor Yasha Levine said. “News of their visit had our investors fleeing instantly,” Levine wrote in a posting on The eXile’s blog. The apparent shutdown comes just as the newspaper finished celebrating its 11th anniversary. Founded in 1997, The eXile publishes Gonzo-style ... |
