The fight against opponents of Vladimir Putin continues.
The Russian Prosecutor's Office requested this Monday two years and eleven months in prison against the dissident Oleg Orlov, a figure in the defense of human rights in Russia, for repeated denunciations of Moscow's military offensive in Ukraine, during an appeal trial.
Veteran of Memorial, the NGO co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize and dissolved by Russian justice, this 70-year-old man is one of the last critics of the Kremlin not to be imprisoned or in exile abroad.
Oleg Orlov refused to speak during this hearing, saying he was waiting for the last speech reserved for the accused, before the verdict is announced, to express himself.
He previously called the prosecution “unjust” and said he was “persecuted for expressing an opinion.”
At the end of a first trial, Oleg Orlov was found guilty in October 2023 of having “discredited” the army and was sentenced to a small fine, a very lenient verdict in a Russia which has become accustomed to imprison critics of power.
This sentence had been requested by the Prosecutor's Office but it then changed its mind and appealed.
“Continue the fight” from Russia
If most of Vladimir Putin's critics have been incarcerated or driven into exile in recent years, against a backdrop of accelerating repression, Oleg Orlov explained to AFP in early February that he was staying in Russia to "continue the fight".
Active since the 1970s, Oleg Orlov has become one of the pillars of Memorial, the main organization fighting in Russia to preserve the memory of Soviet repressions and documenting current ones.
The NGO was dissolved at the end of 2021 by Russian justice, but it was then awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, a few months after the launch of the Russian assault in Ukraine.
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All this comes ten days after the death in prison of Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin's main political opponent.
On February 22, Vladimir Kara-Mourza – another opponent of the Russian president – called on Russians not to “despair” from his cell.