Memorial Publishes Lists of Political Prisoners in Russia
On 30 October, the Day of remembrance of the victims of political repressions, the Memorial Human Rights Centre publishes its traditional lists of political prisoners in modern Russia.
These lists (1, 2) are obviously incomplete; in fact, they are just a reliable minimal estimate of the amplitude of political repression in the form of deprivation of freedom. Today, they contain 195 names. A year ago, there were 117 individuals in them. The real number of political prisoners and other individuals deprived of their freedom for political reasons in today’s Russia is undoubtedly much larger.
Over the past year, 37 people from our lists of political prisoners were released to freedom. Over the same period, 115 new names appeared in the lists.
Among those liberated are Ali Asanov, Zarema Bagavutdinova, Ivan Barylyak, Dmitry Bogatov, Dmitry Borisov, Dmitry Buchenkov, Mustafa Degermendzhi, Vladimir Yegorov, Robert Zagreyev, Rafis Kashapov, Oleksandr Kostenko, Dmitry Krepkin, Yury Kuliy, Aleksey Kungurov, Ruslan Kutayev, Oleg Navalny, Maxim Panfilov, Valery Parfyonov, Konstantin Saltykov, Alexander Sokolov, Valentin Sokolov, Inga Tutisani, Alexander Shpakov, and Alexander Eyvazov. Most of the released prisoners fully served the unjust and unjustified punishment imposed on them by the court. In this context, the cessation of the criminal prosecution of D. Bogatov and commuting the prison term of I.Tutisani are especially important success stories in the struggle for the release of political prisoners. It is very likely that the solidarity campaigns in support of D. Borisov and K. Saltykov also hastened their release. Public attention played a role in the fate of other political prisoners too.
Among the political prisoners included in the list over the last year are human rights defender Oyub Titiev; journalist Igor Rudnikov; Ukrainian hostages of the Russian authorities Mikola Dadeu, Roman Ternovsky, Vladimir Prysych, Hlib Shabliy, and Oleksandr Shumkov; the defendants in the «New Greatness» case Sergey Gavrilov, Maria Dubovik, Piotr Karamzin, Ruslan Kostilenkov, Vyacheslav Kryukov, Anna Pavlikova, Dmitry Poletayev, Pavel Rebrovsky, Maxim Roschin, and Rustam Rustamov; the defendants in the «B.A.R.S." case Igor Ivanov, Alexander Mamayev, Alexander Orshulevich, and Nikolay Sentsov; victims of the «witch hunt» unleashed in the aftermath the failed «revolution of 5.11.17» Roman Maryan, Vladislav Mordasov, Yan Sidorov, Vyacheslav Shatrovsky; victims of violations of the right to freedom of assembly Mikhail Tsakunov and Konstantin Saltykov; activists Piotr Miloserdov, Mikhail Savostin, Dmitry Tretyakov, and Valentin Sokolov.
84 people were added to the list of those persecuted in connection with the exercise of the right to freedom of religion. Among them are peaceful Muslims, primarily, those accused of membership in the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, Jehovah’s Witnesses (31 individuals), and five members of the Church of Scientology.
We demand that the Russian authorities release all political prisoners. We also call for solidarity with political prisoners and support for them.