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Putin offers condolences over death of human rights activist Alekseeva

Russian President sent a message of sympathy to the family and friends of Lyudmila Alekseeva

© Michael Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin deeply mourns the passing of Russian human rights activist and chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday.

Peskov pointed out that the Russian president "highly praised Lyudmila Alekseeva’s contribution to the establishment of civil society in Russia and utterly respected her principal stance on many issues in our country’s life."

"Vladimir Putin sent a message of sympathy to the family and friends of Lyudmila Alekseeva," the spokesman added.

Alekseeva, a member of the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights and the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, died aged 91 in Moscow on Saturday.

Lyudmila Alekseeva was born on July 20, 1927. In 1950, she graduated from the History Department of Moscow State University and started working as a history teacher and then as a science editor of the archaeology and ethnography desk of the Nauka (Science) publishing house. In 1970-1977, Alekseeva worked at the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences at the Soviet Union’s Academy of Sciences.

Alekseeva joined the human rights movement in 1966. In 1977, she was forced to emigrate from the Soviet Union. The dissident settled in the United States and authored some research into the history of dissident movement in the Soviet Union. Alekseeva returned to Russia in 1993 and three years later headed the oldest human rights organization - the Moscow Helsinki Group. In 2002, she joined the Russian Presidential Commission for Human Rights, which was transformed into the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights in 2004.

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