Amnesty report exposes systematic isolation and legal loopholes used against dissidents in Russia.
The short version
- Amnesty International's report reveals the Russian authorities' use of isolation and legal loopholes to punish dissidents.
- Alexei Navalny died in a penal camp in February, and now Vladimir Kara-Murza fears the same fate.
- Dissidents are systematically denied access to their families as part of a brutal strategy.
Russian authorities use brutal methods to punish prisoners Dissenters By depriving them of contact with their families, according to the latest report by Amnesty International.
It is common for some prisoners to be denied visits and phone calls. For those under investigation, this technique is often used as leverage to obtain a confession.
It could also be a way to punish them for not cooperating or criticizing the authorities, the human rights organization wrote in its report.
– Conscious strategy
Alexei Navalny died in February in Russia Penal camp. The opposition leader's widow blamed Vladimir Putin for his death.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, 41, is the Putin critic who received the harshest sentence: 25 years.
Russia expert Inna Sangadzhieva recently told VG that she fears he will suffer the same fate as Navalny.
The report says that the Russian authorities are exploiting this opportunity. Legal loopholes And Fabricated pretexts To further isolate opponents, including those imprisoned for speaking out against Russia’s war in Ukraine.
These tactics are not isolated actions carried out by individual thieves. John Peder Agnes, Secretary General of Amnesty International Norway, said in a statement that this is a deliberate strategy by the Russian government to isolate and silence opponents and cause them and their families more suffering.
How to exploit “vulnerabilities”
Following Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Amnesty International was banned from working in Russia.
They are not allowed to enter prisons. Therefore, the report was written on the basis of in-depth interviews with family members, friends, lawyers and human rights defenders.
Here are some of the tactics used in Putin's Russia to stop contact with family and friends, according to Amnesty International:
- Routinely refusing visitation requests and phone calls while in detention, often without giving any reason.
- Classifying family members as “witnesses” in the trial, and preventing them from communicating.
- Delay or complete ban Messaging Between prisoners and their loved ones.
- Unexpected transfers of prisoners ahead of scheduled family visits, which were subsequently cancelled.
- Put the prisoners in Disciplinary cells Because of alleged minor violations, often fabricated, before the planned family visit.
The latter has largely applied to Alexei Navalny, and now also applies to Vladimir Kara-Murza, according to independent Russian media.
After Navalny's death this winter, Kara-Murza is now the most famous prisoner oppositionPolitics in Russia. In May, he was declared the winner Pulitzer Prize For his courageous comments to the major Washington Post.
Amnesty International’s report highlights a number of examples of political prisoners being prevented from meeting their loved ones:
- Vladimir Kara-Murza was banned from contacting his wife and children for 14 months.
- Alexandra Skochilenko, an artist from St. Petersburg, was separated from her partner for a year after being sentenced to seven years in prison for her anti-war activism.
- Oleg Orlov, a human rights defender, was transferred to another region ahead of a scheduled visit from his wife.
- Alexei Gorenov, a member of the municipal council, has been repeatedly appointed Insulation cell For committing minor violations, which led to his family being deprived of visits.
Denying prisoners contact with the outside world violates international human rights standards and could constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Amnesty International wrote.
Read also: European Court of Human Rights: Russia committed human rights violations in Crimea
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