A "new Stalinism": activist 'kidnapped' in Kiev and sentenced to two months
Moscow (AsiaNews)
- After having fled to Ukraine seeking political asylum, a Russian opposition
activist has been arrested in Kiev, brought to Moscow on a private jet and
sentenced in the absence of his lawyers to two months in prison on charges of
" organization
of mass disorder" intent on overthrowing power in Russia. The
operation against Leonid Razvozzhaev, a member of the Left Front (the most
radical fringe of the opposition to Vladimir Putin) immediately provoked comparisons
to KGB methods, and comes as part of a wider investigation initiated by the
authorities against activists at the forefront of anti-government
demonstrations last year.
Razvozzhaev
had been indicted in absentia for "organizing mass disorder" after
the "Anatomy of a protest-2" documentary, broadcast by pro-Kremlin
NTV October 5, which portrayed him and his companions engaged in the
preparation of a
coup in Russia with the help of lenders in Georgia and Great Britain.
The
information contained in the controversial film - which uses recordings with
hidden cameras - has led authorities to officially open an investigation on 17
October. Konstantin
Lebedev, a prominent figure of the Left Front, was sentenced to two months in
prison on the same charges of Razvozzhaev, while the leader of the movement,
Sergei Udaltsov, was questioned for hours and then released, but with a ban on leaving the country. The
incident has triggered a protest of human rights defenders, who immediately
spoke of " Stalin-style repression " with searches in the middle of
the night in the homes of the accused and their relatives.
"Razvozzhaev
was taken to court in Moscow Basmanny not by police, but by men in civilian
clothes, probably FSB agents" (Russian secret services, heirs to the KGB),
a source close to ' activist told the online
newspaper Gazeta.ru. Ilya
Ponomarev, a member of A Just Russia party and who had hired Razvozzhaev as her
aide, said that the transfer from Kiev took place on a private jet. The
lawyer Violetta Volkova, told the news agency Itar-Tass that the decision on
the arrest of his client was taken by judges "behind closed doors",
without even allowing the presence of lawyers.
Officially
ended in the federal list of most wanted October 19, Razvozzhaev, according to
some colleagues, went to Ukraine to seek asylum, but he did not have time. On
social networks and blogs, the case has raised a storm of controversy. Against
the Kremlin, that the judicial and legislative bodies apparently engaged in a real
"campaign of repression" of dissent, according to parliamentarian
Gennady Gudkov, but also against Ukraine, which handed Razvozzhaev back to Moscow.
On
his Facebook page, the political scientist Gleb Pavlosky writes: "This is
bad for Razvozzhaev. Kiev is not a place for refugees. Nadezhda Mandelstam had already
advised us not to try the Ukrainian defense." The
reference is to the wife of the poet Osip Mandelstam, a victim of Stalin's
purges.
Meanwhile,
the most wanted list in the investigation seems destined to grow. According
to the newspaper Kommersant, the investigators are already on the trail of
Konstantin Kosyakin, another member of the Left Front. If
brought to trial and convicted, the activist faces up to 10 years in prison.
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18/02/2020 10:04
