Boycott ICM 2022 in Russia

1. Political prisoners [wiki]
   In recent years the number of human rights defenders, journalists and scientists in Russian prisons and penal colonies has risen sharply. As for September 2018, the Russian human rights centre Memorial reports there are at least 188 political prisoners or prisoners of conscience. In the Russian Federation political prisoners are often subjected to abuse or torture.
   Currently imprisoned include a philosophy student Pavlo Gryb, who suffers from a disabling and serious medical condition.
2. Repression of opponents [wiki]
   The most widely known critics of Putin's regime who have been assassinated include the journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, liberal politician Sergei Yushenkov, human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, journalist and anti-fascist Anastasia Baburova, human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, American journalist and chief editor of the Russian edition of Forbes Paul Klebnikov, physicist and liberal politician Boris Nemtsov. To touch the topic of mathematical sciences, the famous inventor of knot invariants Victor Vassiliev was arrested in 2014 during a peaceful protest in support of the defendants in the Bolotnaya Square Case. At the time of writing this page police crushed a peaceful protest and over 400 people were detained in Saint Petersburg. Since February 1, 2019, Russian authorities detain Azat Miftakhov, a mathematics and mechanics graduate student at Moscow State University. A letter condemning tortures against Azat and calling for his immediate release was signed by many prominent scientists from Russia and worldwide.
3. Discrimination of LGBT people [wiki]
   In 2013 Russia adopted a federal law which de facto criminalizes LGBT culture. The respective law was adopted in March of 2012 by the governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko, who is a co-chair of the Executive Organizing Committee for the ICM 2022. This resulted in numerous arrests of Russian LGBT citizens publicly opposing the law and there has reportedly been a surge of homophobic propaganda, violence and hate crimes using the law as justification. In 2017 United Nations Human Rights Council condemned the wave of torture and killings of gay men in Chechnya.
4. Annexation of Crimea [wiki] and ongoing war in Ukraine [wiki]
   In February-March 2014 Russian military troops invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. The United Nations General Assembly condemns the annexation and calls upon all states and international organizations not to recognize or to imply the recognition of Crimea as Russian territory. Another resolution of UN documents that Russia systematically curtails civil, political and cultural rights of Crimean Tatars.
   International organizations recognize Russian presence in the military conflict in the East of Ukraine. The war started in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. It has already taken more than 10,000 lives, wounded over 25,000 and made more than 2,000,000 people to flee their homes. Russian military supplied and subsequently recovered the missile launcher that shot down a scheduled passenger flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on 17 July 2014, killing 298 people.
5. Air strikes in Syria [wiki]
   In 2015 Russia joined the Syrian civil war in support of the president Bashar al-Assad, whose army uses against its population such internationally condemned methods as barrel bombs and chemical strikes. Between April and August 2018, Russia conducted at least 13,000 air strikes. As for September 2018, the UK-based Syrian Network for Human Rights reports over 6,000 civilians killed by the Russian Forces, while the total death toll reaches over 200,000.

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