Bio:
Andrei Babushkin was born in 1964. In 1989 he graduated from scientific communism department of the faculty of philosophy at Lomonosov Moscow State University.
In 1989-1990 he worked for a research centre under the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions.
In 1990-1993 he was a member of the City Council and the chairman of the Interdepartmental Commission on crime control and rehabilitation centres.
In 1993-1996 he headed the Association of Prison Trustees.
Since 1996 he has been the chairman of New Home non-governmental organization.
Since 1996 he has been the head of Committee on Civil Rights public organization.
Babushkin has written eight books, including Historic Walking in Otradnoye, Criminal Law for Teenagers, Pocket-book of a Human rights Advocate, Introduction to Social Work in Prisons.
Babushkin is an expert in the rights of prisoners, homeless people and infants. He is also engaged in legal education.
Source: Assistance Centre of Criminal Justice Reform
Dossier:
Andrei Babushkin became notorious after a human rights convention. As a chairman he gave the floor to public officer and member of the Communist Party Mironov who was speaking for about an hour, but deprived all the dissenters the right to speak, including Podrabinek brothers, human rights activists of spotless reputation.
Source: ds.ru, 11 February 2003
In Otradnoye Babushkin became an active member of a project on protection of neglected children and rehabilitation of former prisoners started in Moscow. Babushkin extorted so-called position fee for a job from each convict. He also receieved money for help in cancellation of a criminal record before term expiration.
Once police officers pressed a young criminal down on the ground too hard while arresting him. The young man got a scratch on his face. Babushkin applied to the prosecutor's office. He said that police officers had been beating the detainee for at least three hours. Medical report attached to Babushkin's application was not confirmed, though.
After that he just piled the prosecutor's office of the Babushkin (the name is a pure coincidence) district with allegations on police "excess". Although none of his assertion was confirmed by independent medical examination, many police officers had to spend hours at the prosecutor's office instead of doing their job. Numerous inspections impeded working of Otradnoye police stations which immediately affected crime level in the area. Negatively, of course: it increased by 25%.
Source: Kompromat.Ru, 12 April 2003
In 2001 Moscow regional court handed out a sentence for a teenager who killed a sixth grader. 30 stab wounds were present on the body of the boy. The most shocking thing was that 15-year-old Ivan Mayakov committed the crime to boast of his composure and cruelty to his friends and girls nearby.
Mayakov dragged the boy into bushes and began to stab him in the stomach. Having killed the boy, Mayakov brought his friends there and showed them the dead body. He threatened the teenagers to do them the same if they called the police. However, they did.
Babushkin stood up for Mayakov. He applied to the prosecutor and stated the police "took illegal actions, tormented and tortured the detainee." Owing to the only witness police officers avoided persecution for what they had actually not done.
Source: NEWSru.com, 12 November 2001
On19 July 2003 security officer of Yukos company Alexei Pichugin was arrested for murder of spouses Olga and Sergei Gorin committed in 2002. Later another two of his crimes were discovered: in 1998 he arranged blowing up an apartment owned by former PR consultant to the Mayor of Moscow Olga Kostina and an attempted murder of employee of Menatep Group Sergei Kolesov. Pichugin was also suspected of being involved in two attempts on the life of manager of East Petroleum HandelsGes mbh oil company Evgeny Rybin committed in 1998-1999.
PR campaign in support of Pichugin was surprisingly aggressive. Almost all the newspapers were full of sad stories told by Pichugin's lawyers. Then various human rights associations and foundations raised the alarm over Pichugin's detention. Civil rights activist Andrei Babushkin was the first to defend Pichugin.
Babushkin said to foreign diplomats, "Pichugin was arrested on suspicion of murder at the inconclusive evidence of the person sentenced to life imprisonment for five murders and five rapes. We have every reason to believe that Pichugin was subjected to tortures, in particular, he was injected with psychotropic drugs. He is getting worse from day to day". Babushkin did not say a word about the crimes Pichugin was accused of. Not a word on that "the person sentenced to life imprisonment" was Tambov city resident Igor Korovnikov who actually testified that in 1998 Pichugin had asked him to organize murders of Olga Kostina and Sergei Kolesov.
Source: Kompromat.Ru, 20 February 2004
On Unity Day, 4 November 2006, deputy chairman of Moscow office of Yabloko party Aleksei Navalny and Andrei Babushkin took part in Russian March, the march of radical nationalists.
Source: Expert, 13 November 2006
In September 2010 in Moscow Andrei Babushkin took the lead of establishing a committee in support of former mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov. According to Babushkin, the committe ought to be founded since instead of constructive criticism of Luzhkov "sweeping accusations" take place. Babushkin also said that Luzhkov had performed great services for Moscow.
Source: Market Leader, 21 September 2010
In November 2011, in response to a sentence imposed on Russian pilot Vladimir Sadovnichy in Dushanbe, the Russian Government announced deportation of 100 Tajik migrants. Babushkin said that Kremlin's actions were intended as a showcase for the election coming. "I am afraid this is an attempt to put pressure on Tajikistan.They hit below the belt"
Source: Radio Svoboda, 11.11.2011