Press release, 13.04.2014
Activists of the Novosibirsk branch of YABLOKO’s Green Russia faction conducted a series of one-person picketing for freedom of Evgeny Vitishko.

YABLOKO member Evgeny Vitishko is a well-known environmentalist, civil activist and one of the founders of the Environmental Watch on North Caucuses public group. Evgeny Vitishko was charged with three years on probation for criticism of the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory under a pretext of spray-paining on the fence of his “country house”. The environmental activist expressed disagreement with unlawful seizure of lands and fencing of public territories in a natural reserve near the Black Sea. On the threshold of the Sochi Olympic Games suspended sentence for Vitishko was replaced by a real term in a penal settlement.On April 7, 2015, Evgeny Vitishko declared a hunger strike to protest against the refusal of the Supreme Court to consider his appeal.

International organisations made statements in support of Vitishko repeatedly. In 2014 Amnesty International declared that Vitishko is prisoner of conscience. In March 2015 the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights addressed Russia with a call to take urgent measures to protect Evgeny Vitishko’s rights and freedoms. Human Rights Watch also addressed the Ruusian authorities demanding to release Evgeny Vitishko.