15 July 2021, 23:48
In Saint Petersburg, police remove a banner with Estemirova’s portrait
The police removed a banner with portraits of murdered public figures, including Natalia Estemirova, posted in the Pushkar Garden of Saint Petersburg on the anniversary of the human rights defender’s murder.
The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on July 15, 2020, on the 11th anniversary of the murder of Natalia Estemirova, her colleagues held a discussion. The murder of Natalia Estemirova still remains unsolved, and the flow of appeals from residents of Chechnya to human rights defenders has decreased several times against the background of a worsening situation with human rights violations, participants of the discussion noted. They associated the above with the strengthening of the atmosphere of fear in Chechnya.
On July 15, 2009, Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”*, was kidnapped, taken to Ingushetia, and killed.
Tonight, a banner with the inscription “Heroes of the Past Days” appeared on a transformer box in Saint Petersburg. The banner contained portraits of murdered human rights defender Natalia Estemirova, advocate Stanislav Markelov, journalists Anna Politkovskaya and Anastasia Baburova, as well as politician Boris Nemtsov, the ZAKS.Ru reports.
According to the online edition, the police and, presumably, employees of the energy company, an owner of the transformer box, arrived at the place. Three men in civilian clothes who refused to produce their IDs took off the banner and handed it over to policemen, who took it away.
The organization is included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the “Register of non-profit organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent”.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 15, 2021 at 01:08 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: CK correspondent
