70-year-old Oleg Orlov has dedicated his life to documenting human rights violations during the Soviet Union. For that he shared the Nobel Peace Prize the year before last. Today he was sentenced to 30 months in a penal colony – because he is considered to have “discredited the Russian army” when he criticized the war of aggression against Ukraine and the Russian regime in a newspaper column.
Before he was handcuffed and taken away, he said:
– We live in the 21st century, but these types strive backwards in time, to the 20th century, the 18th century and even the 17th century. Unfortunately, they are dragging our country down with them. But we will win anyway.
Refused to leave Russia
Orlov is a co-founder of the Memorial organization with its huge archive of victims of the Stalin era. Classified as a “foreign agent”, Memorial was banned and disbanded in December 2021.
Orlov has always refused to leave Russia, and in connection with the court proceedings he said that he does not regret anything he has done and that the work must continue, despite the repression.
His wife Tatiana Kasatkina agrees.
– We will work and live and we continue to hope that what is going on now will end one day.
“We must continue to think freely”
Outside the court, grieving associates of Orlov gathered.
– Oleg wouldn’t want us to drown in our own tears, he would want us to keep working, keep being fearless and think freely, said the archivist Sofia and tried to hold back the tears.
The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs comments on the sentence on X:
“Sweden calls on Russia to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners and all those arbitrarily detained, including Oleg Orlov”.
Flowers for murdered Nemtsov
About 20 Western ambassadors were present in connection with the trial. They also took the opportunity to lay flowers where opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was killed, nine years ago – on the day.
Other Muscovites followed their example. This despite the fact that the repression against the opposition seems to have been stepped up ahead of the Russian presidential election in March.
– For me, Nemtsov is an example of the type of politician that we should have more of in our country, our country would have developed in a completely different direction if we had had more of his kind, says Nadezhda.
The pile of flowers grows at the site of the murder, on a bridge near the Kremlin. Anna is one of those who came:
– It wasn’t that long ago that I became interested in politics, but then I realized that lawlessness, police violence and corruption are widespread in Russia. I also realized that everyone who fights for people’s rights and for change is important. It is appalling that people can be killed in the open street just when the surveillance cameras “happen” to be off. They must not be forgotten.
Navalny’s lawyer arrested
On Tuesday evening, information came that Alexei Navalny’s lawyer Vasiliy Dubkov has been arrested.
He was there when Navalny’s mother tried to get her son’s body, after he died on February 16 in a penal colony in Siberia, after three years in prison.
Russian authorities have not commented on the arrest, but according to Novaya Gazeta sources, Dubkov was arrested in Moscow and is suspected of violating public order.
Navalny’s associates announced today that they have not yet managed to find a burial site where officials dare to allow the family to give the embattled opposition leader his final rest.