February 11, 2008

The Lion of Russian Human Rights Defenders: LEV PONOMAREV

Tomorrow we're hosting a remarkable human rights activist in the CEERES office - Lev Ponomarev. He's on a visiting tour of the US, and has agreed to stop by the CEERES office for an informal chat with us about the current state of democracy and human rights in Russia. I can promise that it will be interesting, if bleak... Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 3:30 PM. in the CEERES suite, Judd Hall 319-323, 5835 S. Kimbark Ave.

Briefly,Lev Ponomarev is the founder and executive director of the All Russian Movement for Human Rights, which receives support from the MacArthur Foundation, George Soros and NED. Lev is also a political activist, declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty in 2006 when he was arrested for organizing what the Kremlin viewed as an anti-government Beslan memorial event. While in the U.S., Lev will discuss the general state of human rights in Russia, prison conditions, political prisoners, the recent Duma elections and upcoming Presidential election in Russia. Robert Amsterdam, who appeared at CEERES last September (audio), calls Ponomarev "the lion of Russian human rights defenders."

On Wednesday, Feb. 13, Lev will be interviewed on WBEZ Chicago Public Radio's Worldview program. I'm not sure whether the interview will actually be broadcast Wednesday, but when it is, I'll be sure to post a link. Here's link to Worldview - http://www.wbez.org/Program_WV.aspx.

For more information on Pononmarev, here's a couple links:
Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Ponomarev
Transcript of appearance at Harvard in 2001: here

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