Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 19.01.2021

Old brick wall of prison with barbwire background

Photo by SergeMat / Depositphotos.com

Mathematician Azat Miftakhov was sentenced to six years in prison for a broken window in the office of [the ruling] United Russia [party]. The crime has not been proven, and one of the two anonymous witnesses has died.

Historian Yury Dmitriyev [who found in Karelia one of the largest places of mass burial of Stalin’s victims in Russia] was sentenced to 13 years in prison. The case against the historian was completely fabricated in revenge for his activities in  perpetuation of the memory of the victims of Stalin’s reprisals.

Journalist Ivan Safronov is accused of treason and has been held in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention centre for six months. The Federal Security Service (FSB) has classified the case, however, no evidence of the journalist’s guilt has yet been presented.

Independent expert Antonina Zimina and lawyer Konstantin Antonets were sentenced to 13 and 12.5 years in prison for treason. A married couple from Kaliningrad was accused, among other things, of disclosing the identity of an FSB officer who was a guest at their wedding ceremony and was featured in photographs that were subsequently published.

In July 2019, thousands of people took to the streets of Moscow. Citizens opposed electoral fraud – against the invalidation of the signatures of thousands of Muscovites [who in accordance with the law, signed for registration of their candidates in the Moscow City Duma election] and the subsequent non-registration of independent candidates to the elections to the Moscow City Duma. As a result of the arrests, which lasted several months, 21 people were convicted, two are on the international wanted list. The convicted who are so far in the colonies are:

Maxim Martintsov, 2.5 years in a penal colony;

Kirill Zhukov, 2.5 years in a penal colony;

Sergey Surovtsev, 2.5 years in a penal colony;

Eduard Malyshevsky, 2 years and 9 months in a penal colony;

Yegor Lesnykh, 3 years in a penal colony;

Yevgeny Kovalenko, 3.5 years in a penal colony.

All of them fought for our common rights, against state lies. We must not forget about them! These people are political prisoners, they and their families need regular support (you can help via the website https://delo212.ru/).

В России неуклонно растет число политических заключенных: по сравнению с началом 2018 года количество политзеков увеличилось почти в 2,5 раза. Такие данные следуют из доклада «Политические репрессии и политзаключенные в России в 2018‑2019 годах», который подготовил и опубликовал летом минувшего года правозащитный центр «Мемориал». Если в начале 2018 года в списке политзаключенных «Мемориала» числились 130 человек, то к июню 2020 года в нем было уже 314 фамилий.

The number of political prisoners has been steadily growing in Russia: compared to the beginning of 2018, the number of political prisoners has increased by almost 2.5 times. Such data follow from the report “Political Repressions and Political Prisoners in Russia in 2018-2019”, which was prepared and published last summer by the human rights centre Memorial. At the beginning of 2018 there were 130 people on the list of political prisoners of Memorial, and there were already 314 names in the list by June 2020.

Russia is not a law governed state. The country has a regime of unlimited personal power. The laws are applied as the ruling group wishes. The events around Alexei Navalny are proof of this. We must seek the release of all political prisoners of the regime and build a new state.