From the editor
A court in Astrakhan has sentenced three Jehovah’s Witnesses to a record eight years in prison for their membership of the group, which is banned as extremist in Russia, and a fourth person to three and a half years in prison. The defendants were accused of “using conspiratorial measures such as videoconferences” to continue their activities after the 2017 ban, as well as “distributing extremist literature”. Puppet theatre actor Rustam Diarov, builder Yevgeny Ivanov and welder Sergei Klikunov were found guilty of creating an extremist organisation and fundraising for it. Ivanov’s wife Olga was found guilty of participating in the organisation. The three men had been in jail since last June and Olga Ivanova had been under house arrest.
A raid on the home of one of the Astrakhan Jehovah’s Witnesses in June last year
Meanwhile three Jehovah’s Witnesses in Chelyabinsk were targeted in criminal cases last week. Law-enforcement officers confiscated electronic devices and address books from 53-year-old Vadim Gizatulin and 52-year-old Irina Mikhaylenko and took them both in for questioning. Authorities were not able to search the home of 59-year-old Olga Zhelavskaya because she is in hospital after a Covid infection and a stroke, the Memorial human rights group said. All three are being charged with participating in an extremist organisation. They were witnesses in the case of Jehovah’s Witness couple Vladimir Suvorov and Valentina Suvorova. 75-year-old Suvorov was given a six-year suspended sentence in July and 73-year-old Suvorova a two-year suspended sentence in March.
Back in January 2020 Human Rights Watch wrote that Russian authorities had dramatically escalated the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses despite Vladimir Putin’s promise to “look into” the matter. The organisation said that “the numbers of house raids and people under criminal investigation have more than doubled, and 32 Jehovah’s Witnesses worshipers are behind bars for peacefully practicing their faith. At least 313 people are facing charges, are on trial, or have been convicted of criminal ‘extremism’ for engaging in Jehovah’s Witnesses activities.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses were also sent to concentration camps by the Nazis, and it is almost unknown for them to renounce their faith in the face of prosecution. This determination is probably the reason why Russian authorities are so concerned about them, as well as the usual competitiveness between law-enforcement agencies in different regions to outdo each other with arrests. Muslims in Russia are in a similar situation, with raids constantly taking place to round up people who allegedly belong to extremist sects. Crimean Tatars, who are considered defiant towards the Kremlin, are particularly targeted. Today brothers Seitumer Seitumerov and Osman Seitumerov, their uncle Rustem Seitmemetov and journalist Amet Suleimanov were given sentences of between 12 and 17 years in prison on terrorism charges with non-existent evidence.
Increasingly we are learning that the Kremlin has absolutely free rein to imprison and torture innocent people with impunity. It is indicative that a Russian court has ordered the jailing in absentia of Sergei Saveliev, the Belarusian citizen who smuggled videos of prison torture out and gave them to the media. Saveliev has claimed asylum in France, but Russia accuses him of illegally gaining access to secret computer files. Prosecuting the whistleblower is more important than stopping the abuses, which seem to be an integral part of Putin’s system. The outlook remains very bleak until someone acts.
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Non-working days are holidays for some
Russia is entering a period of “non-working days” that is aimed at reducing the spread of Covid, as the country reported a record 1,163 deaths today and a record 40,096 new infections yesterday. However, local authorities in Sochi have said that they expect about 100,000 tourists to descend on the city during this time, as travel around the country is not prohibited. Moscow, St. Petersburg and 20 regions of Russia have added various lockdown measures to the non-working days, including closing restaurants and entertainment venues. Vladimir Putin has ordered employers to give people another two days’ paid holiday in return for getting vaccinated.
Russia pressures Moldova on gas contract
Moldova has declared a state of emergency over gas shortages after the country failed to reach an agreement on a new contract with Gazprom. The Russian energy giant increased prices from $550 per thousand cubic metres to $790, which Moldova’s deputy prime minister said was not justified or realistic for a poor country that imports the gas via its Russian-occupied region of Transnistria. Ukraine has the capacity to supply about 67 percent of Moldova’s gas needs. The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Gazprom offered to reduce the price of gas for Moldova if its new Western-leaning government led by President Maia Sandu agreed to amend its tariff-free trade deal with the EU and delay the implementation of EU rules that require gas markets to be liberalised. The pressure is reminiscent of Russia’s behaviour towards Ukraine during political disputes. The Kremlin denies using gas as a political weapon.
Dutch court rules Ukraine has right to Scythian gold collection
Russia has reacted angrily to a decision by an appeals court in Amsterdam that Ukraine has legal control over a collection of Scythian gold artefacts that were borrowed from museums in Crimea and Kyiv for an exhibition in the Dutch city in early 2014. The Netherlands kept custody of the collection after Russia illegally annexed Crimea.
“The verdict of Amsterdam’s Court of Appeal sets an extremely dangerous precedent that undermines trust between museum communities of a variety of countries and calls into question further prospects of inter-museum cooperation, including between Russia and the Netherlands. It is regrettable,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. The Kremlin has said it will continue to pursue legal action to return the artefacts to occupied Crimea.
Kemerovo shopping centre fire defendants sentenced
A court in Kemerovo has handed down sentences of between five and 14 years in prison to eight people found responsible for the fire at the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping centre in March 18 that killed 60 people, including 37 children. Another 147 people were injured. Many of the children were unable to escape from a cinema in the building. The head of the company that owned the shopping centre, Yulia Bogdanova, got the longest sentence of 14 years. The manager of the shopping centre, Nadezhda Suddenok, was sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison. Other people involved with its management and a security guard were also convicted.
Libertarian gets prison sentence for protesting
A Moscow court has sentenced Libertarian Gleb Maryasov to 10 months in prison for allegedly blocking roads during a protest in support of Alexei Navalny in the city on January 23. Taking into account the time Maryasov has spent under restrictions awaiting trial he is likely to serve about six months in prison. He was detained on February 22 and charged immediately after being released from jail, where he had served a 30-day sentence for participating in the protest. Maryasov’s wife was seen distraught outside court after his sentencing on Wednesday. Two solo picketers in St. Petersburg, Anastasia Gofman and Valentin Khoroshenin, were detained the same evening for holding signs saying “Free Gleb Maryasov”. They were accused of violating Covid regulations.
Communist MP arrested for illegal hunting
Communist MP Valery Rashkin, who has led many protests against Kremlin policies in Moscow, including challenging the results of the city’s electronic voting in September, has been arrested in Saratov Oblast with a butchered elk in the back of his car. He is accused of hunting illegally and may have been under the influence of alcohol while driving, Russian media reported.