ИСТИНА

The article deals with the current trends in the areas of human rights protection in Russia, and difficulties in setting up and developing the mechanisms to protect human rights. In addition to such an analysis, the history of our human rights movements and their role in the civil society is being critically examined. The focus of the research has been on the peculiarities of the new civil protest events. As part of the research, the link was identified between the existing total neglect towards human rights, corruption, and police’s arbitrariness and wide spread practices of non-legal practices in the society, their consistent institutionalization, i.e., the conversion of such non-legal practices into a firm phenomenon, which becomes a customary pattern of behavior. Conclusions drawn indicate that the human protection activity is in the crisis and it is necessary to find new ideas and targets for the human rights activities.