The present document of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) concerns a press release to Russia in which the ICJ calls on the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to drop disbarment proceedings against leading Russian human rights lawyer and ICJ Commissioner Karinna Mosaklenko.  The ICJ states that the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers require that lawyers must be free to perform their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference. The ICJ is concerned that this principle, which is fundamental to the rule of law, is regularly disregarded by the Russian authorities.