The ALDE Party, 23/02/2014

The winter Olympics have come to a close. Most media attention turned away from Russia when on Sunday lights went out in Sochi’s Olympic stadium after the closing ceremony. Despite, the increasing crack down on freedom of speech in the Russian Federation does not stop.

One of the recent victims of the lack of respect for human rights in Russia is environmentalist and a member of ALDE Party member Yabloko, Evgeny Vitishko. He was arrested just outside of Sochi and sentenced to serve a three year sentence in a penal colony for protesting the destruction of protected forests near the Sochi Olympic site. Used as an example to intimidate all those critical of the regime, Vitishko is on hunger strike ever since his imprisonment.

Last week, ALDE Party President Sir Graham Watson MEP said: “I find it cynical against the background of the Winter Olympics that a respected environmentalist from the Sochi region, who was protesting against the severe destruction of ecological systems in and around Sochi in connection with the Olympic games, receives such a lengthy sentence. It represents another episode in the ongoing wave of reprisals against civil society activists in Russia. Evgeny Vitishko must be freed.”

The presence of the Winter Olympics in Sochi has not resulted in more freedom and democracy in Russia. The ALDE Party and its Russian members will continue to be vigilant and demand respect for human rights and dignity.

You can help to demand the release of Evgeny Vitishko by signing the petition of the Swedish Olympic committee
The original publication