Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the decree on procedures for establishing terrorist threat levels. The text of the document can be found on the official website of the President.

According to the document, an elevated (blue) level of terrorist threat is declared when there is confirmation of information on the possibility of a terrorist attack. A high (yellow) level is introduced in the presence of valid data concerning a real possibility of a terrorist attack, and the critical (red) level is when there is information about a terrorist act or direct threat of its commission.

Under the decree, the decision to impose a terrorist threat level must immediately be published in the media. The level shall be cleared only after the terrorist threat is over.

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The European Court reached a decision in the case of Finogenov et al, better known as the 'Nord-Ost' case, on December 20th, 2011. It determined that the Russian authorities violated Article 2 of the European Convention (the right to life), and on June 4th, 2012, this decision became final.

This did not take place on March 20th, 2012 — typically a decision enters into force three months after its delivery — but only in early June because a group of five judges at the European Court, headed by the Court President, had to act on a petition for the case to be considered by the Grand Chamber in order to get an acknowledgement of yet another

violation on the part of the Russian authorities. This appeal was filed by a small group of applicants, as most of the applicants agree with the court's decision. If most do not quite agree, in any case they filed no complaints that I know about.

I do not know if the five judges found it easy to reach a decision to not transfer the case to the Grand Chamber, but my principals in the transfer petition found it very difficult. And why is that? What is so complicated about the situation? The fact is that, in general, the applicants agree with the Court's recognition of the violation of the right to life and do not contest the entire decision, but rather have just one question as a matter of principle.

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European Court comes up with new restrictions on Russians

‘Kommersant’ found out that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has begun the formality of refusing improperly drawn up complaints from citizens of Russia, as well as not allowing them to resubmit. By tightening regulations, Strasbourg hopes to relieve the crowded court of similar types of complaints. Russian lawyers working at the ECHR say that European justice is now only available to a select few.

Human rights defenders working at the court were informed of the tightening of rules for complaints to the European Court at a conference in Strasbourg a few days ago. The changes will affect five countries, including Russia. The leadership of the European Court made no official statement about this. Attorney Anna Stavitskaya, who specializes in filing complaints with the European Court, told ‘Kommersant’ that the ECHR has started “working out a mechanism” to deny applications not drawn up according to the established pattern. The only exceptions are cases involving violations of the right to life, or torture. “The manual on writing complaints states that a document should consist of a correctly completed form with a brief description of the case on one or two sheets. Earlier these were only recommendations, but now they are binding,” said Ms. Stavitskaya. The head of the ‘Agora’ human rights organization, Pavel Chikov, confirmed this: “Our lawyer was present at this meeting. There it was really announced that complaints not completed true to form would be rejected without the right of resubmission.”

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While browsing the Internet, we accidentally came across a picture of an elderly woman holding a sign dedicated to ‘Nord-Ost’. We were moved by both the sign, and the person holding it.

We wished to know more about this person, and as a result of searches of Live Journal, we learned that this elderly woman is a survivor of the Leningrad Blockade, a teacher, and draws her own posters.

Her political leanings are Democrat, and on every 31st of the month, as well on as other days, she walks along Nevsky Prospect with her signs, and often stands with her posters in front of Saint Petersburg’s large exhibition and shopping center, Gostiny Dvor.

On the evening of May 6th she was at Gostiny Dvor, holding up two signs, with two more on the sidewalk next to her. The police simply walked on by, and no one bothered her. The next day, however, she was again at Gostiny Dvor, and was arrested for some reason, but the police chief ordered her released, because: “I won’t holding a Blockade survivor here!” Later she moved her demonstration to St. Isaac’s Square, and stood by Tsar Nikolai’s monument with a sign protesting Putin’s inauguration.

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