Russian spy trials raise red flag about human rights

The Pasko case has raised doubts about the role of President Putin, who has repeatedly pledged to reform Russia's abuse-ridden justice system, curb the arbitrary powers of the security services, and open trials to public scrutiny. Some human rights activists believe the Kremlin is merely saying one thing and doing another; others fear Putin may be powerless to rein in the FSB.

"We have a policy of proclaimed democratization but practical activization of the security services," says Alexei Simonov, head of the Glasnost Defense Fund, an independent human rights watchdog.

Last week the Kremlin abolished the presidential pardons committee, created as a check on the post-Soviet justice system, and replaced it with local panels subject to regional authorities - a move that experts say further removes the Kremlin from direct responsibility for often corrupt and misfiring courts.

The case of Mr. Sutyagin, a researcher with Moscow's Institute of Canada-USA Studies, has human rights workers even more worried. Sutyagin, who never had access to classified materials, was accused of passing military information gleaned from the Russian press to the British public relations firm Alternative Futures, which the FSB claims was a front for the secret service of "a NATO member state."

On the last day of Sutyagin's treason trial, Dec. 27, the judge cancelled the proceeding, noting there had been "substantial violations of legal procedure, which deprived the defendant of his constitutional right to defend himself." Under a Russian judicial practice, which has been repudiated by the Supreme Court, the judge sent Sutyagin back to prison - where he has already spent more than two years - while the FSB returns to the investigation stage to reformulate the case.

This means that a Russian defendant is basically guilty until proven guilty, say Sutyagin's supporters. "The judge admitted the case was fabricated, but did not have the courage to stand up to the FSB," says Pavel Podvig, an expert with the independent Center of Arms Control Studies in Moscow and presently visiting scholar at Princeton University.

However the trials turn out, say human rights activists, the FSB is succeeding in limiting public debate and inhibiting contacts between Russian intellectuals and foreign colleagues. "The media is already actively censoring itself," says Mr. Simonov, "and refusing to report on any sensitive military or environmental issues."

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