Press Release, 17.02.2014

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin has sent a letter to Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee asking him to speak up on a politically motivated imprisonment verdict to environmentalist Yevgeny Vitishko. According to Mitrokhin, the verdict has a direct linkage to the Olympic Games taking place in Sochi.

On the 15 th of February, 2014, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said that sending environmentalist Yevgeny Vitishko to a penal colony was not linked with the Olympics in Sochi and Vitishko’s public activities. Mr. Adams noted that the IOC understood that Vitishko was arrested after “vandalizing a house about three years ago and breaking a suspended sentence”.

According to Sergei Mitrokhin, such statements by an official representative of the IOC discredits the Olympic Committee and also demonstrates that that the organisation has not even examined the facts related to the prosecution of the environmentalist.

“It is absolutely obvious that such a tough sentence to the environmentalist has been politically motivated and intends to intimidate the civil society in the region against the background of the Olympics. The statements about the adequacy of the sentence represent either naivety or a deliberate refusal to see the obvious facts and come in conflict with the Russian authorities,” runs Mitrokhin’s letter.

A criminal case was filed against environmentalist Yevnegy Vitishko after his spray painting an inscription on the fence erected around a country cottage by the Governor of the Krasnodar Region constructed with multiple violations of environmental laws. The inscription contained criticism in the address of Governor of the Krasnodar Region Alexander Tkachyov. In addition, Vitishko is considered to be a consistent critic of the Governor’s anti-ecological policies. He is famous for anti-corruption investigation into the activities of the authorities of the Krasnodar Territory.

A pretext for replacement of probation by a real imprisonment term was a fabricated charge brought against Vitishko by the local authorities of “swearing at the bus stop”. Yevgeny Vitishko complains of unacceptable conditions in the remand prison: sanitary norms are infringed and it is very cold in the cell. In protest, he went on a hunger strike.