Unfortunately, the situation in Russia is getting worse. The hysteria of propaganda against “external and internal enemies” is escalating, as well as pressure on opposition and civil society in general. All opposition rallies in the center of Moscow are now forbidden; organizers of the Nemtsov murder are protected by the state (while everybody knows that they are people of Putin’s Chechen vassal Kadyrov); TV continues attacks on all critics of the regime, targeting in particular “The May 6th Committee” (defending those arrested in big anti-Putin demo) as “traitors and foreign agents”, etc. And the government has now launched a new military intervention – in Syria, where Russian rockets are killing opponents of Assad’s regime and civilians under the pretext of “fighting the Islamic State”…

But the possibilities for our activities are not yet totally destroyed. We continue to work closely with the Russian Confederation of Labor and Memorial. Now a book on the history of the workers and trade union movement in Russia, based on materials from our April conference, is ready for publication; seminars on the politics of the labor movement and democratic left continue too. In April 2016 we are planning to organize a conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, together with Georgian unions and Socialists, on the history of labor movement and Socialism in Georgia. Probably there will also be a symposium devoted to the anniversary of the anti-war Kienthal conference of 1915 (we are discussing this initiative now with Swiss comrades; will send you more information later).

Richard Greeman, Associate Secretary (France)
Praxis Research and Education Center, Moscow