http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/kiwi-fighter-pilot-honoured-russians-but-not-home-3997577
Published: 8:04PM Thursday January 13, 2011 Source: ONE News
There are calls for a Kiwi pilot's brave exploits during World War II to be given greater recognition in New Zealand.
Wing commander Henry Ramsbottom-Isherwood served in the British air force and is regarded as a hero by Russians.
Ramsbottom-Isherwood's hurricane fighters helped defend the city of Murmansk from Nazi invaders, for which he was awarded the Soviet Union's highest award for valour.
The port city was the destination for allied convoys bringing much-needed supplies to a nation under siege.
Russian reporter Kirill Kiryanov from Rossiya TV 1 says Ramsbottom-Isherwood's award shows the importance of his actions.
"For the wartime, the awarding of a foreign pilot with this medal is unique. It shows what role he played in fighting operations."
Neville Ramsbottom-Isherwood says his uncle's effort should be recognised in the same way at home.
"I would like to see him get some sort of recognition in New Zealand for the efforts of all the Kiwis not just for him," he said.
The actions of Ramsbottom-Isherwood hit the headlines two years ago when his daughter auctioned off his medals, along with a set of miniatures at Sotheby's for more than $100,000.
One of his Kiwi relatives wanted to buy them but didn't have the cash.
New Zealand authorities weren't prepared to stump up with the money due to the state of the economy.
The wing commander's deeds, along with New Zealand's wider role in World War II, will form a documentary produced by Russian state television.
A New Zealand film crew has been working on the project.
The documentary will reach a potential audience of tens of millions across Russia when it is broadcast, which is expected to be in September.
January 12, 2011
Television Justice
http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php?pageid=Politics&articleid=a1294852016
By Tom Balmforth
Russia Profile
The Police Response to the New Year’s Opposition Rally Bodes Badly for its Leaders in the Run-Up to Parliamentary and Presidential Elections
Two opposition leaders remain in detention, 12 days after being arrested for protesting on the eve of 2011 – a parliamentary election year. The police crackdown on the opposition rally came as a surprise to some rights advocates who noted a slightly lighter touch in the police’s handling of antigovernment protests toward the end of last year, as well as public solidarity solidifying in visible grass roots movements. Opposition leaders, however, said the only anomaly in the tough government response was the 15-day detention of oppositionist Boris Nemtsov, who Premier Vladimir Putin singled out in his televised Q&A only two weeks prior to the rally.
The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday said it would fast track its inquiry into the complaint filed by Solidarity leader Boris Nemtsov for his fifteen day detention for protesting in central Moscow on Triumph Square on the evening of December 31.
Roughly 70 protestors were arrested hours before New Year celebrations in the latest of the “Strategy 31” series of protests. The events take place on the 31st of every month that has one, in an allusion to Article 31 of the Constitution on freedom of assembly. Around 50 people were arrested in St. Petersburg and more elsewhere.
For the second time since the movement’s inception almost two years ago, the rally in Russia’s capital was actually allowed to meet, although the fringe branch of the opposition, including the banned Nationalist Bolshevik Party, led by novelist and radical Eduard Limonov, was not.
In what has now become almost a tradition, Limonov was detained and jailed for 15 days, and with him were: Konstantin Kosyakin, a little-known leader of Left Front. At the parallel, sanctioned rally, opposition leaders Ilya Yashin, head of the Solidarity youth movement, and Nemtsov were arrested. Most have now been released, but Limonov and Nemtsov remain in detention.
Opposition leaders said the arrests and heavy-handed response were unsurprising, even though protestors were officially allowed to gather. “They’ve always behaved like this. They used to behave even fiercer before, when they didn’t sanction the rallies and would beat people with batons and push people onto the floor,” said Vladimir Ryzhkov, a former independent State Duma deputy, and outspoken government critic.
“The one thing that is really perturbing is the fact that Nemtsov was arrested. He wasn’t disturbing the peace in the slightest. It’s a disgrace that a person not doing anything wrong is not only detained but also given a sentence of 15 days,” said Ryzhkov.
The day after the public gathering Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, told the BBC Russia Service that Nemtsov was arrested while walking to his car after giving his speech, and had not been going to the other unsanctioned protest as the police say.
Nemtsov and the other leaders detained are “prisoners of conscience,” say representatives of international human rights groups. “We had hoped that finally the right to assembly would be more respected but at the moment we cannot say that we see any progress,” said Friederike Behr, a Russia researcher for Amnesty International’s Moscow office.
The U.S. State Department has condemned the government response to the “peaceful protest” and said that it conflicts with the “long term interests” of Russians and “contradicts” the rhetoric emanating from Moscow.
Ryzhkov said the reason Nemtsov has been given a particularly hard time is because he was singled out by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at his December 16 televised Q&A session. “What in fact do Nemtsov, Ryzhkov and [Vladimir] Milov want?” Putin asked on television, two weeks before the rally. “Money and power – is that what they want?!”
“I see a link between Putin’s political speeches and the arrest of Nemtsov,” said Ryzhkov. He also said that the home straight from now until the parliamentary elections in December and the presidential elections early next year will be tough for opposition leaders, especially at protests.
Many pointed to October’s sanctioned opposition rally on Triumph Square in Moscow as a sign the authorities were timidly easing restrictions on protestors under new Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. In St. Petersburg too a gay parade was given the go ahead, but the crackdown on these latest rallies suggests the timorous liberalization was fleeting and cosmetic. “There had been positive signs so this recent response of the authorities to people who wanted to gather in a peaceful way on the 31st was a slide backwards,” said Behr.
According to Nemtsov’s lawyers, Russia’s courts are only taking his numerous complaints seriously now that Strasbourg has been involved. “After the European Court of Human Rights, the Russian legal bodies have also decided to take up Boris Nemtsov’s complaint. A dozen complaints had already been submitted in various ways to various Russian institutions, but there has so far been no reaction from Russia’s legal bodies,” Vadim Prokhorov, Nemtsov’s lawyer told Interfax yesterday.
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