{"id":4708,"date":"2021-10-08T02:22:57","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T02:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mediateka.online\/learnrussian\/the-state-isnt-interested-the-ngo-soldiers-mothers-of-saint-petersburg-has-defended-the-rights-of-russian-servicemen-for-30-years-now-it-can-no-l.html"},"modified":"2021-10-08T02:22:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T02:22:59","slug":"the-state-isnt-interested-the-ngo-soldiers-mothers-of-saint-petersburg-has-defended-the-rights-of-russian-servicemen-for-30-years-now-it-can-no-l","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediateka.online\/learnrussian\/the-state-isnt-interested-the-ngo-soldiers-mothers-of-saint-petersburg-has-defended-the-rights-of-russian-servicemen-for-30-years-now-it-can-no-l.html","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The state isn\u2019t interested\u2019 The NGO \u2018Soldiers\u2019 Mothers of Saint-Petersburg\u2019 has defended the rights of Russian servicemen for 30 years. Now it can no longer work with them."},"content":{"rendered":"
Conscripts being sent off for military service in the spring of 2021Sergey Malgavko \/ TASS<\/figure>\n

After 30 years spent defending the legal rights of Russian conscripts and soldiers, the NGO \u201cSoldiers\u2019 Mothers of St. Petersburg\u201d will no longer be working with military personnel. In a statement published on October 5, the organization said that a new order issued by the Federal Security Service (FSB) has rendered most of its operations impossible. Indeed, the new order includes a list of topics \u2014 many of which concern the military \u2014 that you can\u2019t collect information on without risking a \u201cforeign agent\u201d designation or even felony charges. That said, Soldiers\u2019 Mothers isn\u2019t shutting its doors completely. To find out more about how the NGO plans to move forward, Meduza spoke to its chairperson, Oksana Paramonova.<\/p>\n

In an order published on October 1, the Federal Security Service (FSB) outlined a list of information that \u201ccould be used to threaten the security of the Russian Federation.\u201d Anyone collecting information specified in the order is now expected to voluntarily identify themself to the Justice Ministry as \u201cforeign agent.\u201d Failure to self-register is considered a criminal offense.<\/p>\n

The FSB\u2019s list includes 60 topics in total, many of which are related to the army \u2014 like the locations of specific military units, for example. Other banned topics include information about the \u201cobservation of the law and the moral and psychological climate in the armed forces,\u201d and information about the progress and results of criminal probes under investigation by military investigators.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These restrictions have thrown a wrench in the work of Soldiers\u2019 Mothers of St. Petersburg, an NGO that has been defending the legal rights of Russian conscripts and soldiers since 1991. \u201cEvery year we received more than a thousand applications from military units from all over the country regarding the health of service personnel,\u201d the organization\u2019s chairperson, Oksana Paramonova, tells Meduza. \u201cWe report on servicemen not being provided with medical aid \u2014 we indicate the hospital and the specific military unit. And the collection of such information \u2014 and indeed, information about the moral and psychological state of the army, about the health of soldiers \u2014 has now been banned.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Oksana