Week-ending 11 June 2021
On 6 June 2021 opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov said he had fled Russia for Ukraine. On 1 June he had been arrested and his property was searched. He was then released on 3 June without charges. He said he had been warned that he, along with relatives and associates, could face arrest if he remained.
RFE/RL, 6 June 2021: Russian opposition politician and former lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov said he has fled the country amid concern he could be arrested on what he called trumped up charges. Gudkov was detained in Moscow on June 1 over an allegedly unpaid debt on a rented property dating from several years ago. He was released on June 3 without being formally charged. “I am approaching Kyiv,” he said on Facebook in a June 6 post he confirmed to AFP as genuine. “Several sources close to the presidential administration said that if I do not leave the country, the fake criminal case will continue until my arrest.”
RFE/RL, 7 June 2021: Russian opposition politician and former State Duma Deputy Dmitry Gudkov says that he decided to leave Russia after he was warned that his relatives and associates could face arrest if he remained. In an interview with Current Time from Kyiv on June 7, Gudkov said he had been given “a window of opportunity” to leave Russia before being arrested. He said he had been told “the Gudkov matter will be settled by any means necessary.” “Permission has been given from the very top,” he said his sources informed him.
