Human rights in Russia week-ending 30 July 2021 - with Grigory Vaypan

Simon and Sergei

This week our guest on the podcast is Grigory Vaypan. Until recently, Grigory was head of the Litigation Department at the Institute for Law and Public Policy where he led strategic human rights litigation before the Constitutional Court of Russia and the European Court of Human Rights. Since 2013, Grigory has been developing the practice of amicus curiae at the Constitutional Court of Russia. Grigory teaches seminars on constitutional litigation and writes articles on constitutional law and international law.

The topics discussed in the podcast include: Legal education in Russia and the U.S. (at Moscow State University and Harvard Law School); The Galina Starovoitova Fellowship at the Kennan Institute; Why become a lawyer/advocate specialising in human rights issues; Court cases; Institute for Law and Public Policy; The International Federation for Human Rights report: ‘Russia: Crimes Against History’; Last year's Constitutional Amendments; the European Court of Human Rights; The laws on ‘foreign agents’ and ‘undesirable foreign organisations’; Young lawyers in Russia today; The future of the justice system and human rights in Russia.

This podcast is in Russian. You can also listen to the podcast on our website or on SoundCloud, Spotify and iTunes.

The music, from Stravinsky’s Elegy for Solo Viola, is performed for us by Karolina Herrera.

Sergei Nikitin writes on Facebook: Moscow University, Harvard Law School, and St. Petersburg University are stages in Grigory Vaypan’s education in law. In addition to these institutions, Gregory spent three months at the Kennan Institute as a Galina Starovoitova Fellow. "The task of the American educational system at Harvard is to intellectually inspire a person to accomplish things in their profession,” says Grigory Vaipan. “The Russian system of higher education is designed in a different way." Grigory has also worked at the Institute for Law and Public Policy, where he was involved in developing nonprofit jurisprudence related to human rights cases in the constitutional court. In addition, a recent report written by Grigory Vaypan for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), entitled ‘Russia: Crimes Against History,’ has attracted the attention of the reading public. This document discusses ‘how the Russian state monopolizes history.’ The author with justice states that ‘Russia is one of the countries that has passed the largest number of laws suppressing freedom of expression on historical issues.’ These include a law against the ‘rehabilitation of Nazism.’ laws banning the use of Nazi symbols and attributes, laws against extremism and terrorism, and more. The latest news from the Kremlin ideological front, with its newly-formed Historical Enlightenment Commission - with the help of state law enforcement agencies fighting off all attempts to ‘falsify’ the facts - only confirms the importance and timeliness of Grigory Vaypan's report.

Simon Cosgrove adds: A summary of some of the week’s events in Russia relevant to human rights can be found on our website here.