Press release, 3.07.2015

YABLOKO turned out a batch of T-shirts devoted to the birthday of environmentalist and political prisoner Evgeny Vitishko. Today he turns 42.

Everyone who wants a T-shirt with Vitishko’s photograph can take it at YABLOKO main office: 31 Pyatnitskaya Street, building 2.

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin congratulated Evgeny Vitishko on his birthday:

“Evgeny Vitishko is a true fighter, modern hero, the person who wasn’t afraid to go against the system and even when he found himself in hard circumstances he didn’t give up and and carries on his struggle.

On behalf of all the party I congratulate you on your Birthday from the bottom of my heart!” said Sergei Mitrokhin.

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. In 2012 Evgeny Vitishko was charged with three years on probation for criticism of Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachyov under a pretext of spray-paining on the fence of his “country house” built on the seized and fenced public lands. The environmental activist expressed his disagreement with unlawful seizure of the 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 15, Kirsanovsky District Court of the Tambov region refused to release ecologist Evgeny Vitishko on parole. YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin was present at the court hearing. On June 25, the Tambov Regional Court dismissed Evgeny Vitishko’s appeal against the decision of the Kirsanovsky District Court which refused to relese Vitishko on parole.

Vitishko’s lawyer is going to file a cassation appeal to the Tambov regional court presidium.

International organisations made statements in support of Vitishko repeatedly. In 2014 Amnesty International declared that Vitishko was 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 Russian authorities demanding to release Evgeny Vitishko. ALDE Party President Sir Graham Watson earlier this year stated that he “finds 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. Yevgeny Vitishko must be freed.” Statements in favour of the release of Vitishko were made by world and European liberals – Liberal International, the ALDE party, Norwegian Venstre, Zares, Slovenia, the Liberal Party of Moldova, Italia dei Valori, Italy and other. IOC and Olympic Committees of Norway and Sweden and Prime Minister of Norway and the EU delegation also asked for his release.