10 August 2024
OVD-Info is a Russian civil society organisation that monitors politically-motivated arrests and prosecutions in Russia. Each week OVD-Info publishes a bulletin with the latest news, which is translated here. To receive the mailing in Russian, visit here.
Write to Political Prisoners! No one prosecuted for political reasons should be without support.
We have released our News Service, which is to help provide support to all political prisoners we know of, as well as those prosecuted for political reasons more generally. Our goal is to write at least 5 letters to every one of them. We estimate that more than 2,700 people have faced politically motivated prosecution in Russia, and around 1,300 have been imprisoned. But these figures are likely underestimates; daily we receive new names and cases of prosecution and update these figures accordingly.
The prisoners freed last week made this clear: letters help people survive and serve to remind them that their fate has not been forgotten. We need to unite our efforts so that not just the well-known prisoners get letters, but those whose names you have most likely never heard of – they get far fewer letters. These people need our help most of all. To get started with your letter, click here: Write a letter
Hello! A funeral has been held in memory of an anti-war activist who died in a pre-trial detention centre after a hunger strike; a man convicted of posting comments online critical of Ramzan Kadyrov has been diagnosed with cancer; and a member of a biker chat group accused of plotting terrorist attacks has been tortured to death.
News
Funeral ceremony held in Birobidzhan for anti-war activist who died in custody. The mother of the deceased activist Pavel Kushnir has said that her son died as a result of a dry hunger strike on 27th July. Those present at the funeral noticed signs of injuries to his face,, as though he had been beaten. The 39-year-old pianist went on hunger strike from the first day he was placed in custody in May, he subsequently began refusing water. He was prosecuted on charges of publicly calling for acts of terrorism after a video he posted online showed him ‘calling for the violent overthrow of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation by means of revolution.’
- Why is this important? Human rights lawyers heard of Pavel Kushnir’s prosecution too late, only after he had died. The lawyer Olga Sadovskaya, of the international organisation Committee Against Torture, noted in an interview with the media outlet Takie Dela that this is linked to the fact that human rights lawyers are no longer being admitted into places where prisoners are being held. The pianist had only the lawyer he had been assigned, who had “absolutely no interest” in his client, added human rights lawyer Olga Romanova. Before his arrest, Kushnir was the lead singer of the Birobidzhan region Philharmonic Orchestra, he was a known partaker in protest campaigns, and in May last year he announced he was going on hunger strike as a protest against the war in Ukraine.
Man convicted for a post on LiveJournal, Zakhar Zaripov, diagnosed with cancer. Mr Zaripov has been diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in the parotid gland. At the moment, he is imprisoned in the Khabarovsk region, and is working with his lawyer to obtain medical treatment. In April, Zaripov was sentenced to five years in prison for justification of terrorism. According to the investigators in his case, he posted on LiveJournal that Ramzan Kadyrov should not send Chechen troops to fight in Ukraine, and should instead focus his efforts on securing Chechen independence from Russia.
- Why is this important? Cancer is a terrible diagnosis, and to fight it while in prison is even worse. It is practically impossible to get access to quality medical care while being held in a detention centre or a penal colony. To get medical examinations by doctors in hospitals outside the prison system is a difficult task as the Federal Penitentiary Service staff are unwilling to agree to such procedures. In addition, the condition of the prisoner will likely get worse as a result of meagre food supplies, cold cells, and other problems Russian prisoners face that are associated with the conditions they are being held in.
A member of a bikers’ chatgroup accused of plotting a terrorist act has died after torture in prison. Kirill Buzmakov has died at home in Stavropol region after having been released from prison and placed under house arrest in late spring. In spring 2022, while he was in prison bones in his face had been broken and he was refused medical treatment for one and a half years. He was only given an operation – to completely remove his jawbone – in May this year. According to his wife, Buzmakov was prosecuted along with three friends for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack; they had been tortured to make them testify. Buzmakov’s wife explained that the men loved cars and motorbikes, and they talked about them on a group chat on Telegram, where they also discussed the war in Ukraine and criticised the Russian authorities.
- Why is this important? Although the exact cause of Kirill Buzmakov’s death is unknown, there is no doubt that he died as a result of violence against him by the prison authorities whilst in prison. He was refused admission to hospital, so they could hide the signs of torture, and he was promised medical attention only on the condition that he testify against himself. Throughout this entire time, a trauma he had incurred as a result of this treatment became ever worse, and he believed it was developing into a malignant tumour. ‘It could have been easily treated in the initial stages. But I am done for as you can see,’ he wrote to one of the other bikers.
Pensioner beaten in Moscow bus for allegedly calling Wagner fighters ‘murderers’ 87-year-old Dmitry Grichy was attacked by two passengers who believed him to have made this remark as the bus drove past a memorial to the hired soldiers of the Wagner Group. The pensioner had his arms forced behind his back, and he was pushed off the bus while being insulted by the two passengers. He was then taken to a traffic police officer on duty. All three men were arrested by police officers who came to the scene. The pensioner later being released without charge. The two other men were later charged with the criminal offence of hooliganism.
Why do I need to know this? The ever-continuing war in Ukraine enables a huge growth in violence. This violence is occurring not just in war zones. It can now be seen increasingly on the streets. “I am just sorry to have been born in a country where people do not consider each other human beings,” Dmitry Grinchy commented to the journalist Ilya Azar in an interview. The pensioner added that ‘none of the passengers felt any shame,’ and that he ‘remembered the shootings of all my relatives in 1937,’ when Mr Grinchy’s father was accused of espionage and shot.
Features
“We have all the time in the world now; no rush at all.” A report on Sasha Skochilenko’s reunification with her friends and family. Convicted in a case of ‘fake news’ about the war, Sasha Skochilenko leaves St. Petersburg Detention Centre No. 5 where she has spent the last two years, climbs into a police van, and a uniformed policeman takes her to a different Detention Centre in a part of St. Petersburg called Gorelovo. There, they pick up Andrei Pivovarov and then leave for Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison. They spend the next four days imprisoned in the capital city, when Sasha is finally given back her rucksack containing her music books and sheet music. As this is going on, her partner Sonya and her friend Lesha search for her unsuccessfully around all the Moscow prisons. Sasha is then freed by the government along with 14 other people and sent out of the country. Sasha, Sonya, and Lesha meet in the German city of Cologne. We spent an evening with them. Read our exclusive report here!
“An overwhelming feeling of peace.” Out interview with the politician and former political prisoner Andrei Pivovarov. Andrei Pivovarov is the former director of the movement Open Russia. In Summer 2021 he was arrested for participation in an ‘undesirable organisation’ and sentenced in July the following year to four years in a penal colony. He spent the first year and a half of his sentence in a special cell in Krasnodar’s Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 1, and was then sent to a penal colony in Karelia. For most of the time, the politician was in a single cell under special security measures. A correspondent from OVD-Info met with him in the German city of Bonn a few days after his release as party of the prisoner exchange. Read more here.
“It dries you up and turns you to stone.” Tatiana Usmanova, Andrei Pivovarov’s wife, on their wedding in prison and support for her husband. We also had an interview with Tatiana Usmanova about what it is like to marry in a prison, the stereotypes of political prisoners’ wives, and not to know whether your loved one will be freed at all. Read the interview here.
Translated by Oscar Seecharan
