In 2011, Russia saw the biggest political protests since the end of the Soviet Union, with up to 100,000 people gathering to condemn alleged polling fraud in the parliamentary elections. In response, government security forces arrested thousands of protesters and jailed many key activists. This crackdown by the state inspired a wave of political activism and monitoring, but the government’s recent restrictions on foreign funding—including prohibitions on specific international donors—has forced organizations to seek out new ways to finance work that keeps the increasingly oppressive government accountable.
Freedom of assembly and freedom of speech are especially critical issues in a climate where people are regularly detained for speaking out against the government.
Freedom of assembly and freedom of speech are especially critical issues in a climate where people are regularly detained for speaking out against the government. By monitoring arrests and detentions, civil society can keep the government accountable and aware that their actions—and mounting human rights violations—are being exposed to the Russian public and the international community. In an initial response to the arrests in 2011, a group of volunteers launched OVD-Info, an online monitoring project to keep track of arrests and detainments during the protests. We put together the project in just a few days, as a quick response to the political unrest happening at the time. Between 2011-2012, OVD-Info tracked 5,166 politically motivated arrests at 228 protest events in and around Moscow. In the years following, the project has expanded to look at all issues of freedom of assembly and political oppression, collecting information, personal stories and data on people who have been detained.
