PRESENTATION OUTLINE
The chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group has been fighting for human rights for nearly 50 years, first as a dissident in the Soviet Union and now as an activist in an authoritarian Russia.
The Moscow Helsinki Group is Russia’s oldest human rights group. It was founded in 1976 during the Soviet era and was soon after closed until 1982, with its members either in jail or sent to exile.
Today, Alexeyeva has become the moral voice of Russia, monitoring and publicizing human rights violations.
A few years ago, at age 82, she was pushed into a police van at a demonstration supporting freedom of assembly. The sight of roughhewn police towering over a small elderly woman proved intensely embarrassing to officials, who soon released her.
