Lev Alexandrovich Ponomaryov (also trans. Ponomarev) (b. September 2, 1941, in Tomsk, Soviet Union; Russian: Лев Александрович Пономарёв) is a Russian politician and human rights activist, member of the Moscow Helsinki Group and former member of the parliament. The head of the organization For Human Rights, Ponomaryov is one of the best-known activists for civil society and rule of law in Russia.[1]
Ponomaryov graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1965 and subsequently worked for the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics. In 1990 he was elected to the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian SFSR, and after its dissolution in 1993 was elected deputy in the State Duma (1993–1995). In 1991-1992 he was the chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Investigating Causes and Reasons of the Soviet coup attempt of 1991.
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On the night between 31 March and 1 April 2009, Ponomaryov was attacked outside his home and subsequently hospitalised [1]. According to the Los Angeles Times, Ponomaryov's Russian Wikipedia entry was changed soon after the attack by an unknown user; the new edit said that he had been killed.[2] Human rights activists described the attack as an example of the risk of activism in Russia.[3]
Ponomaryov is among the 34 first signatories of the online anti-Putin manifesto "Putin must go", published on 10 March 2010.