Coalition to Free the Kremlin’s Political Prisoners’ Natalia Arno Calls for Release of All Russian Political Prisoners, Including Alexey Pichugin
March 26, 2019
“[H]uman rights are under assault in Russia in nearly every way, as President Putin and his allies have used their power to pass repressive laws that ensnare citizens of Russia and other areas it occupies,” laments Natalia Arno, President of the Free Russia Foundation, in a guest post for EURACTIV.
Arno’s organization is one of the founding members of a newly-formed coalition aimed at collectively calling out abuses of authority and pushing for the release of more than 220 political prisoners currently held captive at the hands of the Russian regime, including Russia’s longest-serving political prisoner, Alexey Pichugin.
At a time when the Kremlin seeks to increasingly cut its people off from the world, the “Coalition to Free the Kremlin’s Political Prisoners” — which includes both domestic Russian human rights groups and international groups — will work across borders to shed light on the stories of Russia’s political prisoners with targeted media campaigns.
Writes Arno:
“The Coalition is hitting the ground running. According to the Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center, Russian authorities currently hold 233 political prisoners, with targeted groups including rights defenders, such as Shevchenko and Oyub Titiev, who headed the Memorial branch in Chechnya when he was arrested last year; Ukrainian hostages held by the Kremlin, including Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian film-maker imprisoned because he opposed Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea; and Alexey Pichugin, who – after being framed for several murders and attempted murders and having served more than 15 years in prison on a life sentence – has become Russia’s longest-serving political prisoner.”
Arno herself speaks from experience, when she says:
“One of the Kremlin’s preferred methods of repression is to detain political opponents and activists on spurious criminal charges. We are jailed for exercising our fundamental rights, for peaceful protest, for texting our friends, and for holding dissenting political opinions. This is part of a larger campaign by the authorities to crush civil society and stifle dissent in my home country.”
A little over six years ago, Arno was given two days to leave the country or spend twenty years in jail for state treason for her pro-democracy work on behalf of an American organization, and since lives in exile, separated from family and friends. She says:
“Discrete actions by the broader international community alone will not be enough to make a fundamental change in Russia. There is a need for a common and coordinated advocacy strategy among civil society organizations around the world in order to make the Kremlin heed our calls to release political prisoners,”
— which is why the Coalition was launched.
To learn more about the Coalition to Free the Kremlin’s Political Prisoners, click here.
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