Russian opposition veteran now in prison.
On Tuesday, dissident Oleg Orlov was sentenced to two and a half years in a penal colony by a Russian court for repeatedly denouncing the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
At the end of a first trial, he was found guilty in October 2023 of having “discredited” the army and sentenced to a small fine.
The prosecution, which had requested this sentence, then changed its mind and then appealed, leading to a new trial.
What is he accused of?
In detail, he is accused of having demonstrated against the war in Ukraine and of having signed a column against the Kremlin, published on the Mediapart website.
He accused Russian troops of the "mass" murder of Ukrainian civilians and deplored the "victory" in Russia of the "darkest forces", those who "dreamed of total revenge" after the disintegration of the USSR in 1991 Oleg Orlov also described the death of Alexei Navalny as “murder” and called on opponents “not to lose courage and optimism”.
Also read Death of Alexeï Navalny: “The chapter of the Russian political opposition is closed”
During his last speech on Monday, he maintained all of these comments.
“I repent of nothing and I regret nothing,” he said.
He left the court handcuffed and surrounded by police shouting “we love you!”
» Launched by around ten of his supporters, present at the hearing.
Early commitment
Oleg Orlov, 70, is a figure in the defense of human rights in Russia.
Born in 1953 to an engineer father and a philologist mother, a specialist in the historical study of texts, he studied biology at Moscow State University before becoming involved in dissidence.
He campaigned in particular against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
He joined Memorial, the main organization fighting to preserve the memory of Soviet repressions and documenting ongoing ones, at the end of the 1980s. And distinguished himself in the 1990s, investigating human rights violations in Russia. that time.
He worked as observers in several conflicts which began with the fall of the USSR, notably in Chechnya.
This conflict between Moscow and separatists devastated the country starting in 1994.
Twice hostages
In 1995, he was part of a group of voluntary hostages during negotiations for the release of nearly 2,000 people held by a group of Chechen separatists in a hospital in southwest Russia.
The crisis ended with the release of the majority of the hostages, but remained marked by the murderous assaults of Russian forces and constituted a turning point in this first Chechen war.
At the end of 2007, he was taken hostage again with journalists in Ingushetia, a republic neighboring Chechnya.
They are threatened with execution in a field and then left barefoot in the snow.
“I’m more efficient here”
Despite the dissolution of Memorial by Russian justice, Oleg Orlov vowed to continue the fight, even if it meant working in “semi-clandestinity”.
The activist, active for 45 years, has always wanted to stay in Russia, despite the risks faced by opponents of Vladimir Putin.
“I am more effective here,” he told AFP in mid-February, judging that it was “important” that critical voices remain in Russia despite systematic repression.
Over the past two years, he had emerged as one of the last anti-war voices to speak out openly.
At the beginning of February, he was described as a "foreign agent", like most of the Kremlin's opponents.
“Repenting would mean denying my whole life (…) we must therefore continue the fight,” he explained to AFP, taking the dissidents of the Soviet era as an example.
It is about resisting, he continued, as much as his “brilliant predecessors”.
A fight that he shares with his partner, Tatiana Kasatkina, also a member of Memorial, the NGO co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
France described this conviction as “revolting and deeply unjust”, deploring that Oleg Orlov was “clearly the subject of judicial harassment during his trial”.