Statement by the Yabloko Bureau, 22.04.2021

Photo: Penal colony No. 2 in the town of Pokrov, Vladimir region. / Photo by Yevgeny Odinovok, RIA Novosti

The Yabloko party states that large-scale political reprisals have been unleashed in Russia. The intensification of the persecution of political opponents and merely those people who actively disagree with Putin’s policies represents a direct consequence of the unlawful changes in the Constitution of the Russian Federation implemented by the regime in July 2020.

Political repression is the only response of the Russian authorities to the growing public discontent with the twenty-year irremovable rule by President Putin and complete inability of the super-authoritarian system headed by him to solve the real problems of [Russian] citizens.

Almost every day there come reports of new criminal cases against political and public activists, journalists, opposition deputies of different levels, arrests and interrogations.

Hundreds of people in Russia are political prisoners – either convicted on “political” articles (participation in public actions, participation in the activities of “undesirable” organisations, etc.), or convicted for obviously political reasons, rather than for what they are officially charged with.

Some of the criminal cases, such as the Novoye Velichiye (“New Greatness”) case [when young people discussing politics were charged and convicted with creation of an extremist organisation], are fabricated by law enforcement agencies, with participation of provocateurs, while others, such as the “Network case”, are based only on the “confessions” of the accused, knocked out by torture.

The judicial system, the public prosecutor’s office and the investigation have been turned into an instrument of formalising the will of the country’s political leadership, and when considering cases of reprisals against opponents of the government, disregard the law and demonstratively ignore any arguments of the defence.

Among political prisoners there are many who (like [historian] Yury Dmitriyev, whose imprisonment term was increased to 13 years in a fabricated case as revenge for his investigation of the crimes of the Stalin’s period) are close to us in their views, and those with whom (as with Alexei Navalny) we disagree on many things. But this does not matter here – we demand the immediate release of all political prisoners, regardless of their political views.

However, the struggle of the Russian political regime with its opponents is not limited to politically motivated sentences against them.

Murders – both committed (such as the murder of [journalist and head of the Yabloko branch in Kalmykia] Larissa Yudina, [Yabloko MP and journalist] Yuri Shchekochikhin, Boris Nemtsov, [human rights activist and head of the Yabloko branch in Dagestan] Farid Babayev and others) and attempted murders for political reasons (such as the poisoning of Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr which was repeated twice, and the poisoning of Alexei Navalny probably by a chemical warfare) are a fact.

This gives us grounds to declare the existence of “death squads” in Russia, that are eliminating people, politicians and journalists undesirable for the authorities.

We regard this as a grave crime and as a form of state political terror.

We categorically demand to immediately put an end to political terror and bring to justice all those involved in it.

We have insisted and go on to insist on a full-fledged comprehensive and convincing investigation of attempts at political assassinations: the poisonings of Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. and Alexei Navalny. The Yabloko party considers the deliberate creation of an atmosphere of complete obscurity around the poisoning of Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny outrageous and calls on all the responsible political forces in Russia and the West to bring maximum political clarity to what happened. References to privacy or extreme secrecy are not acceptable in these cases.

To a great extent “torture” conditions in prisons, where prisoners are cynically denied the necessary medical care, openly (as in the case of Alexei Navalny) ignoring the norms of the law that guarantee convicts the aid of doctors of their choice who are independent of the penitentiary system are also an [established] fact.

We demand an end to the violation of these norms of the law: the fact of imprisonment by a court verdict cannot and should not mean the deprivation of the convicted person of the right to receive the necessary medical care.

We demand immediate access to all prisoners who need it of doctors of their choice.

We demand a radical humanisation of the Federal Penitentiary Service system. The Yabloko party considers it necessary that the penitentiary system does not narrow, but, on the contrary, expand the admission of civilian doctors to convicts, on the basis of humane and reasonable rules.

The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko demands an immediate end to political persecution in Russia and the release of all political prisoners.

Nikolai Rybakov,

Yabloko Chairman