RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 140, Part I, 25 July 2003

Soldier's Mothers under pressure in Putin's hometown

The St. Petersburg branch of the human rights group Soldiers' Mothers has received a warning from the Justice Ministry, one of RFE/RL's St.Petersburg correspondents reported on 24 July. According to the warning, the activities of the group qualify as religious and do not correspond to the group's charter, as illustrated by the fact that the group's office has religious posters and icons on its office walls. Soldiers' Mothers co-Chairwoman Yelena Vilenskaya said she believes the warning represents the fulfillment of a political order. At the beginning of the year, the military prosecutor for the Leningrad military district sent a letter to the St. Petersburg Prosecutor's Office, asking that it investigate the group's compliance with its charter. As a result, the group now has one month to bring its activities into correspondence with, or change, its charter. Earlier this month, a human rights group in Krasnodar Krai received a similar warning regarding its charter, which specifies that it has three founders while, if fact, it only has one

(see "RFE/RL Russian Political Weekly," 23 July 2004).