THE APPEAL
We, CITIZENS of Russia, inhabitants and natives of Buryatiya and the Buryat
autonomous regions, students, journalists, scientific, cultural and art workers
address to you this appeal in connection with the brutal murder of our compatriot
Nikolay Prokopyev.
We protest against the situation in the Russian cities when practically monthly
there are murders of people on ethnic grounds; (one week before, on February, 19
in the center of Moscow, the chief of the power commission of Republic
Ingushetiya, Batir Kurkyev was murdered – he received 40 blows with a scrap of
pipe). We protest this atmosphere of fear and a forcing of interethnic hatred. We
are convinced, that the Russian Federation is the state which is called upon to
provide to all citizens equal rights and freedoms, otherwise it simply loses the sense
of existence.
We demand from the Russian authorities and personally from the President of
Russia, V.V. Putin as the guarantor of constitutional laws, equal rights and
freedom of Russian citizens, to make certain and forceful steps to stop the growth
of racism, xenophobia and discrimination in our country.
The first step that can be made in this direction - disclosing of all crimes on racist,
ethnic, or national basis, accomplished in Russia, including Nikolay Prokopyev's
murder.
We demand that the State Office of General Prosecutor take Nikolay Prokopyev's
murder under their own control. Law enforcement bodies should take all measures
for diligent, objective and careful investigation of murder of our compatriot,
Russian citizen, Nikolay Prokopyev. We demand that the murderers of Nikolay
Prokopyev must be brought to justice in the near future to appear at court and be
sentenced with severe punishment.
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Moscow, March 4, 2007