Human Rights in Russia week-ending 9 July 2021 - with Gleb Bogush, expert in international law and associate professor at the Higher School of Economics. in Moscow.

Simon and Sergei

This week our guest on the podcast is Gleb Bogush. Gleb Bogush is a lawyer, with a PhD in law, and an associate professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and an expert in international law.

The issues discussed in the podcast include: what it means to be an expert in international law; human rights in the practice of an international lawyer; the European Court of Human Rights and its place in the Russian legal system; Russia and the International Criminal Court; repressive legislation in Russia - laws on foreign agents, undesirable foreign organizations, and so on; legislation on ‘historical memory’, prosecution for ‘distortion of historical truth’; freedom of speech in Russia, including in academia; the meaning of constitutional amendments; the future of human rights in Russia.

This podcast is in Russian. You can also listen to the podcast on our website or on SoundCloud, Spotify and iTunes.

The music, from Stravinsky’s Elegy for Solo Viola, is performed for us by Karolina Herrera.

Sergei Nikitin writes on Facebook: "Would Pinochet be arrested today in London? There are signs of a regression in international law: the ICC was created in the early 2000s, there was the Pinochet case, but the old sense of optimism has been replaced - unfortunately in life things go down as well as up." Last week, Simon Cosgrove and I spoke with Gleb Bogush, lawyer, PhD and associate professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and a specialist in international law. "I started with criminal law in Russia and other countries. I began to study international law later. Working in this field, I do not hide my respect and sympathy for human rights," Gleb told us. Our conversation touched on a great many topics, including the role of the European Court of Human Rights in Russia. Gleb Bogush pointed out: "The government wants to sit on two chairs at once, i.e. to participate in PACE on the one hand, and selectively refuse to execute the judgments of the ECtHR on the other. But the significance of the European Court is tremendous: for Russian citizens, it is an opportunity, albeit a slow and distant one, to find justice.” Talking about the latest legislative products of the State Duma, Gleb said, in particular: "What is happening, in my opinion, is following a strategy, it is a process that cannot stop. In fact, the authorities can no longer do anything else but produce these prohibitions. Everything is done to create a chilling effect, which creates a perception in society that certain topics are taboo, undesirable, that certain things shouldn't be discussed." In our podcasts at Rights in Russia Simon and I discuss whatever issues come to mind. And Gleb Bogush, our recent interlocutor, has certainly broadened our intellectual horizons. Take a listen, too.”

Simon Cosgrove adds: A summary of some of the week’s events in Russia relevant to human rights can be found on our website here.