Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

Director, International Protection Center

Karinna Moskalenko is recognized internationally as one of Russia's most effective and courageous human rights lawyers. In awarding her its "2006 IHF Recognition Award", the International Helsinki Federation said "Karinna Moskalenko is among the most outstanding human rights lawyers in the world, who has helped scores of victims in Russia fight for their rights in court. .."

Moskalenko currently represents Garry Kasparov and the families of Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya. Her caseload before the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) includes a wide variety of Russian human rights issues, ranging from torture and disappearances in Chechnya to victims of the Nordost Theatre siege in Moscow to the arrest and imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the embattled former head of Russia's YUKOS Oil Co., who is now serving an eight year prison sentence in Siberia for what Moskalenko argues are purely political reasons.

Moskalenko founded the International Protection Center in 1995 to protect the human rights of defendants in Russia. Since then, the Center has filed hundreds of cases before the ECHR and won important legal victories on behalf of Russian citizens whose rights have been found to have been violated by the Russian State. Last year, in apparent retaliation, Russian government tax authorities accused the Center of failing to report grants and other international contributions as ordinary income; as a result, the Center is threatened with bankruptcy and closure.

In addition to her work with the International Protection Center in Moscow, Moskalenko is a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists. She has been a member of the Moscow Bar Association since 1993. She also is a member of the Expert Council for the Plenipotentiary on Human Rights for the Russian Federation and the Moscow Helsinki Group. Moskalenko has successfully tried numerous human rights cases in Russia and abroad. In 2001, she became the first Russian lawyer to try and win a case in the European Court of Human Rights. In 2000, Moskalenko was presented Russia's highest award in jurisprudence, Femida. She was named a Commissioner to the International Commission of Lawyers in 2003.

Karinna Moskalenko was born on February 9, 1954, in Baku, Azerbaijan. She earned a degree in jurisprudence from Leningrad State University in 1976. Moskalenko's belief in the Soviet system led her to pursue legal studies in the hope of combating crime as a prosecuting attorney. However, during her studies Moskalenko realized her interest lay in defending the rights of the accused. Moskalenko completed a course in European law at Birmingham University in Great Britain. Based on this and other professional experiences in Europe and Russia, her legal specialization has developed into international public law, specifically the international protection of human rights.