RIGHTS GROUPS TO BE SCRUTINIZED?

Another Putin appointee called on July 22 for an investigation into the financial sources of independent human rights organizations that have criticized Putin’s policies in Chechnya. In an interview with Ekho Moskvy, this Kremlin official suggested that such organizations may be connected with international terrorist networks. The Putin administration thus refused once again to distinguish between dissent and subversion. Especially striking is that the source of this authoritarian rhetoric was not a military or secret police officer, but an official ostensibly specializing in human rights: Abdul-Khakim Sultygov, Putin’s special representative for human rights in Chechnya.