Press Release, 14.02.2014

This morning, Vladimir Kimayev, leader of the Sochi branch of the YABLOKO party, had a meeting with Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg, where they discussed prosecution of environmental activists in the Krasnodar Territory and the sentence of the court envisaging three years of imprisonment for Evgeny Vitishko. The meeting was attended by Alexander Popkov, lawyer of Evgeny Vitishko, and Semyon Simonov, representative of the Memorial society.

The meeting was initiated by Erna Solberg. She expressed her concern “about the acute problems with human rights arising during preparation for the Olympic Games”. According to Vladimir Kimayev, the three key topics were discussed at the meeting: the situation with Evgeny Vitishko, prosecution of environmental activists and violation of rights of migrants.

“We told her the details of the Vitishko case and outlined the overall situation with environmental activists who were protesting against the construction of the Olympic Games,” he said. Kimayev also added that Erna Solberg had to raise the issue of imprisonment term for Evgeny Vitishko and reprisals against activists during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. He noted that could means that “the that were hopes of settling the problem”.

On the 12th of February the Krasnodar Regional Court dismissed the appeal of Evgeny Vitishko and sent sentenced him to serve three years in a penal colony for a ‘damage’ to the fence around the country cottage of Governor Tkachyov.

During the trial, which lasted only a few minutes, YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin noted on Twitter that the verdict to Evnegy Vitishko in Krasnodar was “a disgrace not only to the Russian court, but to the International Olympic Committee too, which put up with such things during the Olympics.”

The next day the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asked explanations from Russia on the case of environmentalist Evgeny Vitishko. In addition, the EU Delegation in Moscow expressed their concern with replacing probation for Vitishko by a real imprisonment term. “The EU is closely following the case of Mr Vitishko in Krasnodar. We are concerned about the decision to replace a three-year suspended sentence by a real imprisonment due to the fact that he had allegedly committed an administrative offense,” Russian media quoted EU representatives in Russia.

It should be also noted that in November 2011, according to the investigation, Evgeny Vitishko and environmentalist Suren Gazaryan spray painted an inscription on a metal fence in the forest. The environmentalists argued that the fence was built around the cottage of the Governor of the Krasnodar Region Alexander Tkachyov, however the press service of the regional Administration denied that the site and the buildings were owned by the Governor. In 2012 Vitishko was sentenced to three years of probation, but later this punishment was replaced by a real term in a penal colony. Suren Gazaryan was forced to leave the country.