This week our guest is Igor Valentinovich Sazhin, an activist with Memorial and a human rights defender from Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic. Among the topics we discuss are how Igor became involved in civil society activities and human rights, and in the work of Memorial in particular, his work as the chair person of the Komi Human Rights Commission ‘Memorial,’ the impact of the law on ‘foreign agents,’ recent events in Belarus and the future of civil society and human rights in Russia.
This podcast is in Russian.
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The music from Stravinsky’s Elegy for Solo Viola is performed for us by Karolina Herrera.
Sergei Nikitin writes: Last weekend Simon and I talked with Igor Sazhin, historian, human rights activist, teacher, and author of a fascinating history of the open ‘settlement’ prison Ichet-Di special settlement. Igor Sazhin is a former chairof the board of the Commission for Human Rights Protection at Syktyvkar Memorial, he is a talented trainer and has been a member of the International Observation Mission of the Committee for International Monitoring of Human Rights in Belarus. Of course, the conversation was about Belarus and human rights defenders of the Komi Republic, about the current human rights situation in Russia – and what will happen next.
Simon Cosgrove adds: If you want to listen to this podcast on the podcasts.com website and it doesn’t seem to play, please download by clicking on the three dots to the right. A summary of some of the week’s events in Russia relevant to human rights can be found on our website here.
