Prominent Russian Rights Defender Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison

Today, a Russian court sentenced one of my dearest friends, Sergei Lukashevsky, to eight years' imprisonment because he expressed outrage at the Kremlin's war on Ukraine. Fortunately, he had left Russia following the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

I've known Sergei for over two decades. A historian and rights defender, Sergei, 49, ran the Andrei Sakharov Center and Museum in Moscow. The authorities shut down the organization, one of Russia's true human rights giants, in 2023, for allegedly violating the requirements of the country's toxic "foreign agents" law. That year, the government also banned as "undesirable" their sister organization, the US-based Andrei Sakharov Foundation.

When Sergei relocated to Germany in the face of imminent prosecution, he and his colleagues established "Radio Sakharov", a radio station and podcast platform, to revive the Sakharov Center in exile and create a space for researchers, activists, and others aspiring to help shape a post-Putin Russia. Earlier this year, Sergei received the prestigious Human Rights Award of the Tonhalle Dsseldorf, established by Hungarian-born musician Adam Fischer, whose grandparents died in the Holocaust.

Sergei's vigorous work from abroad is clearly an irritant for the Kremlin; as evidenced by the absurd criminal case against him, the farcical trial in absentia, and the draconian sentence. The charges against Sergei, namely, "disseminating false information about Russia's armed forces," stemmed from five social media posts and an online broadcast in which he spoke about Russia's crimes in Ukraine and condemned the war.

War censorship is raging in Russia. According to a prominent rights group OVD-Info, nearly 350 people are now behind bars for protesting the Kremlin's abuses in the war. Several imprisoned war critics were released in August as part of a historic prisoner swap, including another close friend of mine, Oleg Orlov, co-chair of Memorial and co-laureate of the 2022 Noble Peace Prize. Oleg is also now living abroad in Europe.

As I rejoice in Oleg's recent release and in the relief that Sergei is safe from imprisonment, I fervently hope to soon see the day when President Putin's exiled critics return to Russia and help it flourish as a democracy.

Source: Human Rights Watch