Statement by the Yabloko party, 27.02.2024

Photo: Human rights defender Oleg Orlov at the hearings of the Golovinsky Court in Moscow, 27 Febraury, 2024 / Photo by Pavel Bednyakov, RIA Novosti

The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko expresses protest against the conviction and imprisonment of human rights defender and one of the founders of the Memorial human rights society, Oleg Petrovich Orlov.

Freedom of speech, expression of one’s thoughts, journalistic images in criticism of the authorities and their policies is the inalienable right of every citizen, proclaimed by the Constitution.

We know Oleg Orlov, he is committed to exclusively peaceful and open ways of expressing his position, never does anything that could pose a danger to the state and categorically does not call for anything like that. He merely emotionally expresses his views, which he has every right to do. The authorities’ taking offense at a citizen, a private person, carried out through the courts, is extremely counterproductive for our country, even for the stability of its institutions of power. The bureaucratic “game” around a previously passed sentence [a fine opposed on Orlov] with the search for new “motives” in Orlov’s statements, which were made in 2022 and were previously assessed by court, especially counterproductive.

We are certain that the sentence [of 2.5 years in a penal colony] to Oleg Orlov is factitious and repressive as such and must be overturned. The stability of government institutions cannot and should not be protected by imprisoning those who criticize them.

The persecution of critics of the government means a return to totalitarianism, which is destructive for the country.

Freedom for political prisoners! The future of our country is inseparable from freedom.

Nikolai Rybakov,

Yabloko Chairman