Balukh, who lives in Crimea, was known for opposing the Russian occupation. He had refused Russian citizenship and drawn the attention of local authorities by hanging a Ukrainian flag on his home and participating in pro-Ukrainian actions. In November 2016, he hung another sign on his house praising the “Heavenly Hundred,” a reference to the protestors killed by government forces in Kyiv just before Russiafriendly President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in 2014. The chairman of the village council and his assistants demanded that he remove the sign and threatened that they would someday “find” weapons or drugs on him. Soon thereafter, FSB officials searched his house and “found” ammunition. Balukh was arrested, charged with possession of illegal ammunition, and placed in pretrial detention. He was convicted in January 2018 (on retrial) and sentenced to three years and five months in prison. In July 2018, Balukh was sentenced to an additional three years for disrupting the activities of a detention center – he had allegedly struck an officer there.

The allegations against Balukh are meritless. As Memorial HRC has explained: “It seems highly unlikely that a well-known regional activist who is subject to constant pressure from law enforcement officials and local government officials, [and] whose house was searched twice in 2015, would store ammunition.”  Furthermore, neither Balukh’s nor his wife’s fingerprints were found on the ammunition allegedly discovered in his home. In addition, confirming the political nature of the case, the officials who searched his home tore down the Ukrainian flag hanging on it. Regarding the conviction for disrupting the activities of a detention center, Balukh insists that the officer hit him first on the left shoulder, and he reflexively jerked his elbow back, which hit the officer. Balukh’s lawyer has explained that video recordings of the incident support Balukh’s description of the events.

Balukh’s detention has been criticized by the European Union, which called him an “illegally-detained Ukrainian citizen,” and the US State Department, which listed him as one of the “Ukrainians unjustly imprisoned.” The UK’s Minister of State for Europe and the Americas also called for Balukh’s release, saying that “[n]o one should be imprisoned for opposing the illegal annexation of Crimea.” The UN General Assembly also adopted a resolution in December 2018 “expressing deep concern about the ongoing arbitrary detentions and arrests by the Russian Federation of Ukrainian citizens, including Volodymyr Balukh.”

Roman Udot, a board member of the independent election monitor Golos, has been charged with committing an offence under Article 119 (Section 1) of the Russian Criminal Code (‘Threat of murder or serious harm to health,’ punishable by up to two years’ deprivation of liberty) on account of a conflict with NTV staff pursuing him at Sheremetyevo airport on 20 March 2018. Udot was arrested on 20 May 2019 and on 23 May 2019 was placed under house arrest after he attended questioning of his own volition, having returned to Russia from a long business trip abroad.

According to investigators, ‘on 20 March 2018 at approximately 19:00 at the Aeroexpress train terminal at Sheremetevo airport, citizen Roman Nikolaevich Udot, […] in the course of an altercation with NTV journalists Aleksandra Andreevna Miroshnichenko and Eduard Nikolaevich Zhuralvev that arose because of their poor personal relations related to the journalists’ professional activities, in the presence of bystanders began to threaten them with murder and physical harm, using phrases such as ‘I’ll kill you, I’ll certainly kill you,’ threats that A. A. Miroshnichenko and E. N. Zhuravlev took to be real since they had grounds to fear the threat would be carried out.’

Memorial has reviewed the materials of the criminal case and has concluded that Roman Udot was unlawfully deprived of his liberty and is wholly innocent of the charges.

The article of the Russian Criminal Code under which Roman Udot has been charged is not classified as a serious offence, and on such a charge a person with no previous conviction cannot be sentenced to deprivation of liberty. In accordance with Articles 107, 108 of the Russian Criminal Code, pre-trial measures of restraint in the form of house arrest can be imposed on persons charged or suspected of such acts only in exceptional circumstances, namely, where the identity of the person has not been established, the person has no permanent residence in Russia, or the person has violated previous forms of pre-trial restraint or has hidden from the investigatory bodies, police investigators or the courts. However, the charges against Udot, who of his own volition went to the police for questioning on his return to Russia and requested that the criminal case opened against him for allegedly hiding from the investigative authorities be reopened, are absurd and contradict all known facts. The imposition of house arrest is therefore a crude violation of the Russian Criminal Code and has no basis or justification.

Furthermore, there is no evidence of an offence in Udot’s actions. It is evident that the NTV journalists did not «consider [Udot’s emotional exclamations] real since they had grounds to fear the threat would be carried out,’ since they were pronounced in a place that was well protected and where there were many people. Moreover, there were two NTV correspondents and, evidently, they were not intimidated by Udot’s threats since they continued to pursue him. Udot did not use physical force, did not threaten the ‘victims’ with any weapon or objects used as a weapon, and his biography and public position do not allow him to be seriously considered someone capable of committing a crime of that nature.

A situation of that kind, in which journalists from a propaganda media organisation harass and hound civil society activists with impunity, is itself totally impermissible. Roman Udot and his ex-wife have been subject for several years to harassment by NTV ‘journalists’ that was either instigated or, at the least, sanctioned by the security services. The incident itself on 20 March 2018 happened at Sheremetyevo airport before Udot was to fly out, itself evidence that information about his movements and planned travel arrangements was illegally passed to NTV journalists. According to Meduza, the NTV journalist and ‘victim,’ Miroshnichenko, has been involved in a number of instances of harassment of activists and failure to observe minimal professional standards.

In Memorial view, the political motivation for the harassment of Roman Udot is the authorities’ desire, on the eve of this year’s regional and local elections, to hinder the work of one of the largest election observation organisations in Russia, an organisation in which Udot has been an active participant. Golos has for many years been subjected to ceaseless intimidation, including criminal prosecutions of members of the movement, the designation of the organisation as a ‘foreign agent,’ and the publication of numerous ‘news’ items smearing the movement and its supporters.

On the basis of the points listed above, we demand the immediate release of Roman Udot from house arrest and the impartial consideration of the charges brought against him by a court of law.

In 2017, Noviye Kolyosa published a story questioning how Viktor Ledenyov, a member of the powerful Investigative Committee (which answers directly to Vladimir Putin), had acquired a lakeside luxury home. Soon thereafter, Rudnikov was arrested by the FSB – it was alleged that he tried to extort $50,000 from Ledenyov in exchange for ending the negative reporting about him. The arresting officials forced handcuffs on Rudnikov so violently that they broke his arm, and they later beat him so badly that he had cracked ribs and a severe concussion and lost consciousness. In a video, members of the FSB can be heard telling their superior that they had given Rudnikov a “good beating.” Yet the violence against him was never investigated.

The charges against Rudnikov are highly implausible. As another opposition politician in Kaliningrad explained: “Only an idiot would try and blackmail a general in the Investigative Committee. It would be like attempting to blackmail Putin himself and hoping he would pay up. And Igor Rudnikov is certainly no idiot.” Similarly, Memorial HRC noted: “It is difficult to imagine a situation in which an opposition MP and a journalist who was persecuted in connection with his public activities would extort money from the head of the regional administration of the [Investigative Committee].”

Leading experts and organizations have connected Rudnikov’s detention to his reporting. The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media stated that “there are reasons to believe that Igor Rudnikov’s detention is related to his journalistic work,” and Reporters Without Borders has described the charges as “clearly trumped-up” and “an act of political revenge.”

May 30, 2019

FREE RUSSIA FOUNDATION STATEMENT AGAINST PERSECUTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN OCCUPIED CRIMEA 

On May 30, 2019 two Crimean Tatar activists, Lutfie Zudieva and Mumine Salieva, were detained by the Russian authorities (Center for Combating Extremism) in occupied Crimea. Lutfie Zudieva was apprehended on her way home from the market, while Mumine Salieva was approached by security forces at her home.

Lutfie Zudieva and Mumine Salieva are being accused of “propaganda or public display of extremist organizations” under Article 20.3 of the Russian Federation Code of Administrative Offences.

Lutfie Zudieva is both a director of the children’s center “Elif” and an activist. She has also been a civic defender within the judicial process of participants in the picket on December 18, 2017.

Mumine Salieva, wife of political prisoner Seiran Saliev, is a human rights activist and founder of the “Crimean Childhood” initiative, which aims in assisting children in occupied Crimea. She is also an active participant of Crimean Solidarity movement, whose goal is to help all of the political prisoners suffering from injustice within Crimea at the hands of the Kremlin regime. To this end, members of Crimean Solidarity provide legal, financial, and moral assistance to the victims and their relatives.

The lawyers were denied access to Crimean Tatar activists. Trial hearings will take place at the de facto Kiev district court in Simferopol.

The Free Russia Foundation strongly condemns persecution of lawyers and human rights defenders in occupied Crimea and demands that the Russian Federation government immediately cease (1) its unlawful suppression and obstruction of lawyer work and human rights activities; and (2) its use of Russia’s “anti-extremism and anti-terrorism” legislation in the occupied territory, in violation of international humanitarian law, in order to persecute individuals for their public, legal, and human rights activities.

We ask international organizations and governments of democratic states:

• To continue pressuring the Russian government to put a stop to their ongoing persecution of Crimean Solidarity activists and to their efforts to obstruct the work of independent lawyers in occupied Crimea.
• To condemn Russia’s use of its own “anti-terrorism and anti-extremism” legislation in its persecution of lawyers, human rights defenders and civil society activists in occupied Crimea.
• To impose personal sanctions on persons involved in the gross violations of human rights in occupied Crimea as well as on those directly involved in the obstruction of lawyer work and persecution of the Crimean Solidarity movement.

For further information, please contact:

Natalia Arno

President, Free Russia Foundation

[email protected]
+1 202 549 2417

In April 2017, the Russian Supreme Court ruled that the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses – the head office of the religion in Russia – was an extremist organization, effectively banning all Jehovah’s Witnesses’ activities in the country. A lower court had previously banned the local chapter of Jehovah’s Witnesses to which Christensen belonged. Christensen was arrested in May 2017 during a police raid on a Jehovah’s Witness service and charged with organizing the activities of an extremist organization. His allegedly unlawful actions included giving a sermon, discussing a religious publication, organizing worshipers to help with the upkeep of the building, and persuading other people to attend services. After spending 20 months in pretrial detention, he was convicted in February 2019 and sentenced to six years in prison.

Christensen’s conviction and the 2017 Supreme Court ruling are only recent high-profile examples of the long-standing persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia. By some accounts, the Government has treated them as violent fundamentalists since at least 2004. Beginning in 2007, local courts started banning local Jehovah’s Witness organizations as extremist and numerous pieces of Jehovah’s Witness literature were placed on the Federal List of Extremist Materials. Forum 18, a news service focused on freedom of religion, has documented more than 120 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia who are under criminal investigation, on trial, or serving a criminal sentence on extremism-related charges. Those that are detained have been recognized as political prisoners. Some of these individuals have been brutally tortured to force them to disclose information about their meetings and leadership.

Christensen’s conviction, and the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses more generally, have been widely criticized. Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, declared: “The harsh sentence imposed on Christensen . . . effectively criminalizes the right to freedom of religion . . . for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia.” The corapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that monitor Russia said that “Christensen’s conviction and imprisonment for nothing more than peacefully practising his faith is an unacceptable violation of the right to freedom of religion.” In July 2018, the European Union expressed concern about “reports of continued systematic persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, including police raids of private homes, intimidation, arbitrary detentions and criminal prosecution.” In September, six UN Special Procedures relayed their “concern at the arrest and detention of members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious minority on the basis of legislation on counter extremism, and at the raids against their homes.” The UK Foreign Office said that the Supreme Court’s 2017 ruling “effectively criminalizes the peaceful worship of 175,000 Russian citizens and contravenes the right to religious freedom.” Amnesty International has designated “Dennis Christensen and all Jehovah’s Witnesses deprived of right to liberty solely in connection with the peaceful exercise of their right to religion” as prisoners of conscience.