The human rights defender died at the age of 58 on 14 May

Press Release, 17.05.2022

Hundreds of people came to the House of Human Rights in Smolensky Boulevard, Moscow, so that to pay their last respects to Andrei Babushkin: colleagues of Andrei Babushkin in the human rights movement, members of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, including its former and current Chairmen Mikhail Fedotov and Valery Fadeyev, and, certainly, Andrei Babushkin’s friends and colleagues in the Yabloko party, in which he has been a member since 1999.

The ceremony was attended by Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee Grigory Yavlinsky, Deputy Chairman of Yabloko Sergei Ivanenko, members of the Political Committee Valery Borshchyov, Sergei Mitrokhin, Yevgeny Bunimovich and Alexander Shishlov, members of the Federal Bureau of Yabloko Olga Tsepilova, Anatoly Golov, Kirill Goncharov, Maxim Kruglov and Grigory Grishin.

Nikolai Rybakov said that Andrei Babushkin was a real politician, because “politics in our country is protection of human rights”. More human rights activists would come, however, there can be no one like him, he is absolutely unique, Rybakov stressed. “It was an honour for thousands of citizens in our country to work together with Andrei Babushkin at Yabloko,” Rybakov concluded.

Sergei Mitrokhin, a member of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko and deputy of the Moscow City Duma, stressed that “Andrei was a politician, and a very serious one, and non-ordinary person”.

“The most specific thing he did in politics was that he brought morality into it, he brought human things into it. In a way that only he could do. This is a unique person. Ascetic. Such people are unique at all times, but in our difficult, terrible time, he will be especially missed. He will forever remain in our memory. Thank you, Andrei, for your wonderful, great life,” Mitrokhin said.

Yevgeny Bunimovich, a member of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko, deputy of the Moscow City Duma and ex Ombudsman for Children’s Rights in Moscow, said, “Those who met and talked with Andrei, they knew that he was always and everywhere late. Although everyone, certainly, understood that at that moment he was not busy with himself, but with someone else, and that this particular someone’s fate, this particular life is more important than any meeting or conference at any level. He was always late… But here everything happened so insanely early, and it is impossible to wrap our minds around it.

… As a children’s ombudsman, I used to sit down with him, and, well, there seemed to be nothing for us that could be a clue in the case, that nothing could help there. But next to him it was impossible not to try to do something else. The most striking thing was that sometimes it worked out, although it seemed that there was no chance…

…Andrei had absolute accuracy of thought, absolute knowledge of legislative nuances, which, frankly speaking, even those who were obliged to know did not know, and which he knew 150%.

I was always struck by his benevolence towards those for whom it seemed difficult to feel it. And those whom he helped were not always the most positive people, and those to whom he turned for help were also not always in line with their posts, but they all also became better for at least five minutes because of his benevolence, they even felt something more human in themselves than ever before.

There is such a phrase “irreparable loss” in the civil memorial service. But in this case, it is absolutely true. I see many excellent human rights defenders in this hall who know a lot and can do a lot, but they also realise that the place that Andrei occupied cannot be filled in.

I have now recollected another tragic death, the death of my friend both in life and in Yabloko, [investigative journalist and a Yabloko MP] Yuri Shchekochikhin [who was poisoned]. [Poet] Andrei Voznesensky wrote a poem then that ended with the words “the last saint in Russia”. Today we realise that he [Yuri] had been not the last. We realise that there is some chance that there will be more. Andrei did a lot some that more such people could emerge.”

Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee and Yabloko founder, said:

“Andrei Babushkin was an absolutely amazing person. Who else could seeing a beggar lying on the ground, take him to his home, put him in his bed, lie down on the floor next to him, and the next day repeat it again if faced with this. Only he could do this.

He is not a human rights defender, he is a Human. Sorry, but this is much higher. He is real. Everyone who was next to him, who was friends with him, should understand that it was a great honour to simply shake hands with him. For us Yabloko, all these 25, it is a great honour that Andrei Babushkin was with us. It was a great honour for us that Sergei Kovalev was with us. We will always try to live up to these people.

Let you memory, Andrei, be eternal.”

Andrei Babushkin was buried at the Mitino Cemetery in Moscow.

ANDREI BABUSHKIN

is a member of the Federal Bureau of Yabloko. Chairman of the public human rights charitable organisation Committee for Civil Rights, member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation