PUTIN’S NEW HUMAN RIGHTS REPRESENTATIVE GOES HOME.

An ethnic Chechen, Abdul-Khakim Sultygov, was named on July 12 as the new special representative of the Russian president for human rights in Chechnya. Sultygov had been working as the secretary of the joint working group of the Duma and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The appointment was announced while Lord Judd of PACE was visiting in Moscow. A well-known “democrat,” Ella Pamfilova, did not receive the appointment, as had been hoped by some opponents of the war. Instead she was named chairwoman of President Putin’s commission on human rights (Lenta.ru, Gazeta.ru, July 12).