Russia party wins parliamentary victories, but many criticize Timeline it as neither free nor democratic. 1917 - The Russian revolution begins as Vladimir Lenin 2008 - Dmitry Medvedev is elected president and Putin leads the Bolsheviks in overthrowing the government. becomes Prime Minister. Russia invades Georgia after 1918 - Russia ends participation in WWI. Finland and Poland Georgia attacks separatists in South Ossetia. Parliament cede. The empire collapses, leading to civil war between the extends presidential terms from four to six years. Red Army (Bolsheviks) and White Army (anti-communists). 2009 - Medvedev ends “counterterrorism operation” in 1918-1921 - Red terror campaign occurs in which remote Chechnya. Opposition denounces local elections after camps with notoriously poor conditions are used to imprison United Russia party overwhelmingly wins every poll. North those deemed enemies of the state. Caucasus Muslim extremists are blamed for a series of 1922 - Civil war ends. Bolsheviks establish the Union of bomb blasts on Moscow’s train and metro systems. Russia Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.); a single-party state 2010 - Yuri Luzhkov, long time Mayor of Moscow, is fired by governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital. President Medvedev. 1922-91 - Cold War between the US and the USSR occurs. 2011 - Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov claims 1936–1938 - Mass arrests and executions are coupled with responsibility for a suicide bombing at Moscow's airport that an increasing Gulag population as Stalin consolidates power. kills at least 35 people and injures 110 others. Putin gains 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev takes power and initiates a policy confirmation as the 2012 ruling party's candidate for the of openness (glasnost) and restructuring (perestroika). presidential election. Thousands protest elections after the 1991 - Boris Yeltsin becomes president. Russia, Ukraine and ruling party maintains a majority in parliament. Belarus form the Commonwealth of Independent States, 2012 - In an attempt to control presidential election fraud, thus dissolving the USSR. Chechnya declares independence. the opposition forms the League of Voters. Galos, an 1992 - Russia takes over USSR’s UN Security Council seat. independent election monitoring group, is expelled. Major 1993 - Yeltsin lifts price controls. Parliament revolts, leading protests lead to the arrest of hundreds after Putin wins the to elections and a new constitution or State Duma, which election with over 63% of the vote. Pavel Drozdov is gives the president greater powers and Russians the right to arrested for public intoxication and dies in custody of acute free enterprise, private ownership and individual rights. pancreatitis. However, several months later surveillance 1994 - Russia invades Chechnya. video of his cell shows police beating him, tying his hands 1996 - Yeltsin gains second term and signs a peace treaty and feet together behind his back in what is known as the with Chechnya and an agreement of cooperation with NATO. “swallow” position and leaving him alone in his cell. 1998 - Russian ruble collapses. Russian police are accused of committing acts of torture, 1999 - Chechen militants invade Dagestan. Vladimir Putin including sexual abuse, beatings, electric shock treatment becomes the fifth prime minister in two years after Yeltsin and forced confessions of crimes. fires his predecessors. Putin’s popularity rises after he sends 2013 - Edward Snowden is granted asylum in Russia after troops into Chechnya to combat terrorism. leaking sensitive US intelligence information. Russian 2000 - Putin wins presidency after Yeltsin suddenly resigns. neo-Nazi group begins new campaign of terror against 2002 - Russia’s last independent TV station is shut down. lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth by using Chechen rebels take 800 hostage in a Moscow theater. 120 social networking sites to entice and then torture victims. hostages die when Russian forces storm the building. Rebels 2014 - Russian government harasses and intimidates kill over 50 in a suicide attack on the headquarters of the journalists and organizations ahead of the Olympic games Moscow supported Chechen government. held in Sochi. Allegations made that hundreds of workers 2003 - International monitors and human rights groups involved in construction for the Olympics were not paid. question the legitimacy, timing, and outcome of a Chechen Some families forced to move due to Olympic construction referendum vote, that left the Chechen republic a part of the also not compensated. Fighting breaks out in Eastern Russian Federation. Separatist suicide bombers attack Ukraine in April 2014 sparked by pro-Russia separatists. government buildings, military installations, public events, Allegations surface that Russia is behind the separatist buses and trains; hundreds are killed, thousands are injured. movement and is supplying weapons, troops and technical Putin’s party wins elections, giving him almost total control assistance. Russian Parliament amends “Foreign Agent” over Duma. Billionaire oil boss and supporter of the liberal law allowing the government to register organizations as opposition, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is arrested over alleged foreign agents without their consent. tax violations and fraud, and sentenced to 8 years in prison. 2015 - Crimea region of Ukraine votes to join Russia and is 2004 - Putin wins second term and announces regional officially integrated in March, as Russian troops surround governors will be appointed rather than elected. Chechen the area. President Akhmad Kadyrov dies in a bomb blast. 330 are killed in North Ossetia’s school siege. 2005 - Russian forces raid neighborhoods and search for Chechen fighters. Hundreds are killed, including separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. Warlord Shamil Basayev emerges as the new commander of rebel forces. 2006 - Putin authorizes authorities to monitor and close “threatening” NGO’s. Russian forces kill Basayev. Racial tensions rise after a market blast kills mostly Central Asians and two Russians are killed in a bar brawl. 2007 - Pro-democracy and anti-Putin protests lead to arrests. Putin's United Torture Methods Current Situation Languages: Russian (official), Tatar, Ukrainian, Chuvash, RUSSIAN POLICE regularly use torture to extract Bashir, Mordvin, Chechen confessions, including the threat of rape, sodomy with Population: 142,423,773 (July 2015 est.) bottles and other objects, electric shock and beatings. Religion: Christian Orthodox, Islam, Protestant, Jewish Detainees are regularly threatened with death. In many Ethnic groups: Russian 77.7%, Tatar 3.7%, Ukrainian 1.4%, instances they are stripped of their clothes and forced to Bashkir 1.1%, Chuvash 1%, Chechen 1%, other 10.2%, kneel down in front of deep holes in the ground and made unspecified 3.9% (over 190 ethnic groups exist) to believe they will be shot. In other instances they are forced into holes and left naked with no water or food for RAMPANT CORRUPTION is an acute problem in modern Russia days. Ears have been pierced with sharp nails, bones Russia, affecting all levels of the public and private sectors. broken, genitals squeezed, fingers and ears mutilated, The public procurement sector alone reportedly cost the hands and feet smashed, and temporary blindness has Russian government USD 32 billion in 2012 which is 20% occurred due to the use of chemical agents. Permanent of total government annual expenditures. In 2014, Russia deafness has been documented as detainees have been was listed as one of the most corrupt countries in the world beaten in the head until their ear drums have broken. by Transparency International. Corruption crimes involve Victims’ family members have been routinely extorted and fraud, embezzlement, illegal use of property, abuse of forced to pay in order to get their family member released. office, abuse of authority and bribery. The government has Sadistic elements are sometimes introduced as police attempted to curtail corruption by enacting laws and setting officers film the torture sessions and subsequently offer to up integrity systems; however, anti-corruption measures are sell the video to the victims who buy them out of fear of generally very weak or not properly enforced. Corruption at public humiliation. Some of the torture methods are so the law enforcement level is usually accompanied by total prevalent that media outlets refer to them using nicknames immunity, thus easily transitioning into extortion, physical and dedicate entire columns to the issue. abuse, torture and murder. THE ENVELOPE (konvert) combines elements of physical CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS flourished following Putin’s return stress and sensory deprivation. The victims are blindfolded to the presidency in May 2012 when a series of laws were and handcuffed with their hands behind their backs. Their enacted, restricting rights to freedom of expression, legs are then folded backwards and tied up to their hands. association and assembly. One of the new laws which took While in this position victims are beaten profusely, burned effect in November 2012 requires organizations that accept with cigarettes, gang raped and sodomized with foreign funding and engage in “political activity” to register broomsticks, champagne bottles, metallic objects, rubber as “foreign agents”, a term that is widely understood to batons or the butt of machineguns. mean spy or traitor. This law was amended by Parliament to allow the government to register groups as foreign agents CALL