The conviction of Russian dissident Oleg Orlov, figure of the NGO Memorial Nobel Peace Prize 2022, is a new attempt by
Vladimir Putin's
"regime" to
"silence"
critics in Russia, the Nobel committee in Oslo said on Wednesday .
“For many years, the Putin regime has tried to silence the leaders of Memorial and other important civil society organizations in Russia, and now it is using
the war in Ukraine
as a pretext to finish the job
. ”
said the president of the Nobel committee in Norway, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, quoted in a press release.
“It is important that he does not succeed
,” he added.
Conviction
A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced Oleg Orlov, a leading human rights figure, to two and a half years in prison for repeated denunciations of the military offensive launched two years ago against Ukraine by Vladimir Putin.
This conviction
“is politically motivated and constitutes further proof of the growing lack of respect for human rights and freedom of expression in today's Russia
,” added the Nobel committee.
In fact, Oleg Orlov is accused of having demonstrated against the Russian assault in Ukraine and of having signed a vitriolic column against the Russian authorities published in the French media Mediapart.
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 .
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 those in progress.
Memorial was dissolved at the end of 2021 by Russian justice but it received the Nobel Peace Prize on October 7, 2022. Orlov vowed to continue the fight, even if, by his own admission, his employees must now work “
in a semi -clandestinity”
.