He is now considered an enemy by the Kremlin. Laurent Vinatier, specialist in the post-Soviet space and member of a Swiss NGO – the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) working in conflict mediation – was arrested on Thursday June 6 by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. Pattern ? He is accused of having “collected information in the field of military and military-technical activities of the Russian Federation” for several years, information “that could be used against state security”.
Laurent Vinatier is notably accused of not having reported himself as a “foreign agent”, a reason punishable by a sentence of up to five years in prison. According to Russian justice, he should have understood on his own that he could fall under this legislation and asked to be placed on the dedicated register.
A doctor of philosophy, Laurent Vinatier first worked in 2001 for NATO in the office of the Secretary General’s advisor for Central and Eastern European affairs. He gradually specialized in the post-Soviet zone, covering political affairs and migration phenomena in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Russia. He then studied the conflict in Chechnya as part of a doctorate defended in December 2008 at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, then worked as a consultant for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
In 2014, he joined the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, a discreet institution based in Switzerland, which works, often in cooperation with the United Nations, in the field of informal diplomacy. The latter, for example, played a leading role in the conclusion of the grain agreement signed in July 2022 between kyiv and Moscow, under the patronage of Turkey and the UN.
Strong tensions
Thursday evening, the day of his arrest, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron placed the case of Laurent Vinatier in line with the “intoxications”, “threats” and “provocations” carried out by the Kremlin against France. “In no case does he work, or worked for France, but we will provide him with all the necessary consular protections,” he clarified.
This affair occurs in a context of strong tensions between Moscow and Paris. While Emmanuel Macron has decided to toughen his tone towards Russia and mentioned sending military instructors to Ukraine, as well as the possibility for kyiv to strike Russian territory with French weapons, several security services European intelligence has warned in recent days of the risks of Russian sabotage linked to the war in Ukraine.
On June 4, a 26-year-old man of Ukrainian and Russian nationality was taken into police custody at the DGSI after being injured by an improvised explosive device in his hotel room near Roissy airport. Charles de Gaulle. An investigation has since been opened by the national anti-terrorism prosecution.