Vladimir Putin has certainly not earned a medal!

In view of the conferring the Saxon "Dankesorden" (a medal of distinction in the sphere of politics, conferred in 2007 on Hans-Dietrich Genscher and in 2008 on Lothar de Maizière) on the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, the Society for Threatened Peoples draws attention to the severe war crimes of the Russian army in Chechnya, the Russian policy of blocking initiatives of the UN Security Council for ending the genocide in Darfur in western Sudan, the increasing racism in Russia and the destabilisation of Ukraine. Putin has not earned this medal!

Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to march once more against Chechnya in 1999. In spite of shocking reports from eye-witnesses, which have been documented and published by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) and other organisations, he has neither prevented nor punished the atrocities of his army against the Chechnyan civilian population. Putin is responsible for the deaths of about 80,000 Chechnyan children, women and men since 1999. Tens of thousands of children have become invalids and orphans. Thousands of Chechnyans have been shut up in so-called filtration camps, held in holes in the ground and systematically tortured. Hundreds of thousands had to flee from the carpet bombing above all from Grosny in the winter of 1999/2000. In the course of "mopping-up operations" Russian troops were allowed to murder, rape, abduct and plunder with impunity. Thousands of Chechnyans were simply hauled off. The outcome has been that the Russian government has set up a system in Chechnya in which Chechnyan militia commit crimes against the civilian population.

During Putin's term of office Russia has with its power of veto in the UN Security Council constantly blocked initiatives for ending the genocide in the western Sudanese Darfur and prevented sanctions against the regime in Khartoum . Putin has also consolidated Russia 's leading role as arms merchant for Sudan . Between 2001 and 2004 Russia exported to Sudan armaments worth 549 million US dollars. Approximately 400,000 black Africans have to date fallen victim to the genocide in Darfur.

The number of racially motivated crimes of violence in the Russian Federation has risen constantly in recent years, as Russian human rights experts have confirmed. Putin takes no action concerning the rising number of murders and severe violations of human rights against people from central Asia . These involve mainly people with dark skins like Usbeks, Azerbaijanis, Kyrgyz and Tajiks. The number of right-wing extremist skinheads in Russia is estimated at 60,000.

After Georgia Ukraine is now the object of Russian aggression. The price of gas for Ukraine is now to be increased fourfold. This means the death blow for heavy industry in the eastern parts of the country. Putin seems to be counting on the collapse of the country. This would be the beginning of a new trouble spot fraught with danger.