Action in front of Russian Embassy

Today, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demonstrated in front of the Embassy of the Russian Federation for Oleg Orlov, a friend and colleague. The board member of the human rights organization Memorial International stood for trial for the second time in Moscow today, at 2 pm. He is facing three years in prison. “Oleg should not be on trial in any country in the world. For over 40 years, he has been standing up for a better Russia, for a Russia that respects human rights, where perpetrators are held accountable – for a Russia without torture, without arbitrary arrests, for a democratic Russia,” said Sarah Reinke, the STP’s expert on Eastern Europe, on the sidelines of the event. “He is on trial today because he cannot remain silent, does not want to remain silent. He wants to raise his voice, for everything that his organization Memorial – which was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 – stands for as well.” Almost 1,000 people have signed the STP’s appeal for the release of the 70-year-old.

According to Reinke, political decision makers in Germany have ignored human rights violations in Russia for far too long. “Instead of supporting democrats and human rights advocates, courageous journalists and lawyers under Putin’s rule, they have been doing business with Putin’s Russia,” Reinke said. They turned a blind eye to the war in Chechnya, in which 80,000 people were killed, and to the murders of opponents of the regime, such as Anna Politkovskaya and Oleg Orlov’s colleague Natalya Estemirova. Even after the annexation of Crimea and the attacks in the Donbass, German politics looked the other way. The people of Russia and Ukraine are now paying a high price for these years of ignorance.”

Meanwhile, Oleg Orlov worked in Chechnya at the highest personal risk. He documented and denounced the horrific human rights violations against men, women, and children. He was in Georgia during the war of 2008, and he documented human rights violations in the Donbas since 2014. “Orlov stood on the side of the many victims of Putin’s repressive regime. Now, he is in danger of becoming a victim of that regime himself,” Reinke warned. “We are standing here because we are part of a bigger movement; for the rights of each and every individual – the international human rights movement. It keeps producing wonderful individuals such as Oleg Orlov. We are aware that we cannot impress the Russian ambassador in Berlin with our protests here, or even get him to act. Nevertheless, we are here. We are not indifferent to what is happening in Russia.”