Lyudmila Alexeyeva

Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alexeyeva ( _ru. Людми́ла Миха́йловна Алексе́ева) (born July 20 1927) is a Russian historian, human rights activist and one of the few veterans of the Soviet dissident movement still active in modern Russia.Maria Danilova (June 15, 2004), [http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=771 Lyudmila Alexeyeva Speaks Her Mind] . The St. Petersburg Times. Issue #977 (45).]

Alexeyeva was born in Eupatoria, Crimea, then part of Russian SFSR. She was trained as an archeologist at the Moscow State University and joined the Russian dissident community during the Khrushchev Thaw in the 1960s. She campaigned for fair trials of the arrested dissidents and their objective coverage in the media. She collected signatures for a petition in support of political prisoners and was excluded from the Communist Party and deprived her job of an editor of a scientific magazine. In 1977, Alexeyeva and her family were allowed to leave for the United States amid KGB threats to arrest her. Alexeyeva continued her human rights activity abroad and regularly wrote on the Soviet dissident movement. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, she returned to Russia and became a head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia's oldest human rights organization, in 1996. In 2000, Alexeyeva joined a commission set up to advise then-President Vladimir Putin on human rights problems, a move that triggered criticism from some other rights activists.

Alexeyeva co-chaired, with Garry Kasparov and Georgy Satarov, the All-Russian Civic Congress which Alexeyeva and Satarov left due to disagreement with Kasparov in January 2008. She has been critical of the Kremlin’s human rights record and accused the government of encouraging extremists with its nationalistic policies, such as the mass deportations of Georgians in 2006 and police raids against foreigners working in street markets. Yet, Alexeyeva says things are not as bad as back in the Soviet times when most dissidents were heavily repressed.Gregory Feifer (March 7, 2007), [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7754423 Russia's New Dissidents Defend Human Rights] . National Public Radio.] She has also criticized the law enforcers’ conduct in Ingushetia and has warned that growing violence in the republic may spread to the whole Russian Federation. [ [http://www.theotherrussia.org/2008/09/22/situation-in-ingushetia-threatens-all-of-russia-–-alexeyeva/ Situation in Ingushetia Threatens All of Russia – Alexeyeva] . The Other Russia website. September 22 2008.] In 2006, she was accused by the Russian authorities of involvement with British intelligence and received threats from nationalist groups. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4640632.stm Russian NGO rejects spy 'smear'] . The BBC News. 23 January 2006.]

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