Dissident Voices

Lidia Yusupova
Human-Rights Campaigner
The lawyer, 45, has made it her life's work to document allegations of executions, disappearances, rapes and torture in Chechnya. "Mass-scale human-rights violations and state-level terror still are the order of the day," she says. Several times she worked with the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, whose "murder sent a signal to mop up 'undesirable elements' and tell the public, 'We don't give a damn what you think.'" Violence, Yusupova believes, has its own logic. "Everyone now is endangered, not only those who live in Chechnya, but those who live in Russia as well." Yet she's sure there will be a backlash. "Society will respond. Some counterweight to this lunacy must emerge, be it in the shape of a new dissident movement, or other forms we don't yet discern. The authorities will as inevitably seek to suppress this movement cruelly and brutally. But suppression will only promote its growth, all the fears notwithstanding."

Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Founder and former chairman, Yukos Oil
Once one of Russia's richest men, he fell afoul of the Kremlin by taking an independent political stand and lost everything. Yukos has been dismembered, and Khodorkovsky, 43, who is serving an eight-year sentence in a Siberian jail on fraud charges he vigorously disputes, has become a symbol of the political nature of Russian justice. Before being jailed, he spoke to a newspaper about the aspirations of his compatriots: "They need democracy, because these are people who don't want to feel uncomfortable when talking to the police, these are people who want to watch whatever it is they want to watch on television, and not a single channel, they want to read the newspaper they like, and they want society to offer them the right to take part in that society, to choose the people they want to be governed by."

Vladimir Ryzhkov
Independent member of the Russian parliament
He knows his attempt to unite fractious democrats in a new liberal opposition party has failed, admits the politician, 40. Also, new rules "make it impossible to have a new political party registered, unless it is endorsed by the Kremlin," he says. He will probably lose his seat in the Duma in the next election because legislation has been introduced banning independent candidates. Still, he is proud of what he's accomplished. "Today, I'm a responsible statesman, and I do all I can to serve my constituency and my country. Tomorrow, I'll have to become a dissident to do the same." He had long hoped that other countries would support Russia's fading democracy, but laments: "The only factor that can influence this regime is outside pressure. Instead, the West encourages Putin."

Oleg Panfilov
Founder, Center For Journalism In Extreme Situations
A secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists, 50, he launched his group six years ago to provide protection for media workers. "On average, 150 journalists a year are brutally physically assaulted in Russia. There are few in the Moscow media who dissent now. They have lined up to conform." Panfilov says it's a different picture in the provinces where reporters take risks in the face of physical threats and professional sanctions, although printers are often too scared to print local newspapers: "The CJES is hearing stories of intimidation of journalists by the authorities from all over the country — from Ingushetia in the Caucasus to Yekaterinburg in the Urals."

Stanislav Dmitrievsky
Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
Outraged by Russian policy in Chechnya, Dmitrievsky, 40, launched his society in Nizhni Novgorod in 2000 with the aim of helping victims of the war. He also started a regular newsletter, which once reprinted speeches by Chechen separatist leaders. A local court handed him a two-year suspended sentence in February on charges of inciting racial hatred, and the group was officially shut down in October. He's appealing the verdict to the Supreme Court. "They're trying to push us underground," he says, "but we'll keep working. We must keep telling society what is really going on in this country — and we'll do that job, no matter what."