We were aware of that even before Human Rights Watch issued its report, as Western news organizations wrote many stories in 2014 about specific instances of Russia trampling on human rights.
Most of the stories highlighted cases of oppression of political opponents, as well as efforts to prevent free assembly and muzzling of the media and Internet.
The phrase “Western news organizations” is an important distinction because Russian news organizations never paint such abuses as rights infringements. These Kremlin lapdogs put a spin on each outrage to try to justify their government’s actions.
For example, they justified as a national security matter Russia’s campaign to crush international non-government organizations working in the country. The latest move in that campaign was the state declaring a number of NGOs “foreign agents.” In Kremlin-speak, that means traitors or spies.
Six of these NGOs gave up and left Russia after being declared foreign agents. The others on the list are fighting for their survival in the country.
Human Rights Watch’s report on Russia, which was part of its annual compendium of the state of human rights in countries across the globe, mentioned Russia’s rights record only in the context of the country’s domestic situation.
But Russia’s anti-human-rights policies are damaging rights in neighboring countries as well.
Here’s the way the spillover works: Russia supports leaders of countries in the region who do its bidding. Knowing that Moscow will protect them regardless of what domestic outrages they commit, these leaders become emboldened to loot their countries, eviscerate political opponents and destroy news organizations objecting to their chicanery.
Ukraine is the prime example. Moscow’s water boy, Viktor Yanukovych, engaged in massive corruption to pile up a fortune estimated at $12 billion while president. The whole world has read about the most blatant symbol of that corruption: the five-story mansion Yanukovych built outside Kyiv whose chandeliers alone cost $43 million.
Yanukovych was emboldened to loot his country and trample on its citizens’ human rights because he was convinced Russia would protect him from ever being overthrown. He underestimated the anger of those he was subjugating.
Tired of the corruption, and believing that closer ties with Europe would provide them with a better life, Ukrainians rose up against Yanukovych when he backed away from signing an association agreement with the European Union. Moscow had told him not to sign…or else.
The Kremlin’s response to losing its water boy was swift and brutal: an invasion and annexation of Crimea and the dispatching of arms, financial aid and regular Russian soldiers to eastern Ukraine to support the separatist rebellion there.
That conflict would have been over long ago if Russia hadn’t supported the separatists. As it is, more than 5,300 people have died, according to the United Nations — most of them civilians. The conflict has also chased an estimated 1 million people from their homes.
The right to life and to a roof over one’s head are basic human rights. By supporting the separatists from the start, and increasing that support over time, Russia has deprived many Ukrainians of those rights.
When you think about it, it’s easy to see a connection between Russia depriving its own citizens of human rights and its depriving many Ukrainians of their rights as well. The connection is the Russian leadership’s determination to keep its thumb not only on its own citizens but on citizens in other countries in the region as well. It’s nothing more than a throwback to Soviet times.
Another example besides Ukraine of Russia impacting human rights in another country is Armenia. The government in Yerevan has received lots of paybacks for doing Moscow’s bidding, in particular dropping a plan to join the European Union in favor of becoming part of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union. The gifts have included big discounts on Russian gas for Armenia and Russian arms supplies to the country.
In addition, Russia continues to maintain a military base in Armenia that could be used to prevent the overthrow of the current Moscow-friendly regime. It was from this very base in Gyumri in January 2014 that a Russian military deserter wandered into town and killed in cold blood seven members of an innocent Armenian family, including a six-month-old boy. The murders have resulted in mass protests here against Russia and Armenia’s neocolonial ties.
As was the situation in Ukraine, Russia’s support has emboldened the government in Yerevan to trample on human rights, including attacking and jailing opposition figures and journalists.
Idealists in countries in the former Soviet Union are disconcerted about what’s happened in Russia over the past decade. They were cheered during the early 1990s when Russia appeared to be embracing democracy. It gave them hope that the country would become a model for the entire region, including in human rights.
That hope has dissipated. Russia is trying to reestablish its regional leadership not by enlightened policy but by browbeating and — when necessary — force. Nowhere Is that more apparent than in the realm of human rights.
Russia’s support of greedy and malevolent regional leaders who do its bidding has led to its own anti-rights policies spilling over into its neighbors.
Sadly, it’s a case of great promise lost.
Armine Sahakyan is a human rights activist based in Armenia.
