Putin expelled lawyer Henry Reznyk from the Human Rights Council

Russian President Vladimir Putin by decree on Friday appointed a new member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights. Lawyers Henry Reznyk and Shota Georgadze, journalist Leonid Nikitinsky and lawyers Mara Polyakova and Alexander Mukomolov were excluded from the Council.

All of them are known as independent human rights activists who spoke out against the tightening of political repression in Russia. Henry Reznyk, a former member of the Council of the Federal Chamber of Advocates, voluntarily left this position in October 2022 along with several other lawyers. They stated that they do not want to legally serve the decisions of the Russian authorities on the annexation of the occupied regions of Ukraine to Russia. Nikitinsky and Polyakova signed a letter in support of director Evgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, accused of “justifying terrorism.”

Reznyk and Nikitinsky announced that they were leaving the presidential SPC in December last year. Putin’s current decree only fixes this fact.

Four new members appeared in the SPC. One of them is the head of the “Russian anti-globalist movement” Alexander Ionov, named in the document as a “public figure”. Ionov is known for his denunciations of individuals and mass media that do not agree with the Kremlin’s policies. In particular, after Ionov’s complaints, the Ministry of Justice of Russia included in the register of so-called foreign agents publications “Meduza” and “Vazhnei istorii”, and the American Bard College was recognized as an “undesirable organization”, its activities in Russia are prohibited. In December 2021, Ionov joined the Public Council of the FSIN, Sota clarifies. Ionov is on the US sanctions list.