Imprisoned Russian human rights activist Oleg Orlov was asked to sign a form affirming that he was ready to fight in Ukraine despite being 70 years old, his organization announced on Friday.
Orlov, leader of the human rights group Memorial, dissolved by Russian justice at the end of 2021 and which won a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, was sentenced last month to two and a half years in prison for “discrediting the armed forces” of the Russian Federation.
He had participated in anti-war protests and published an article in which he claimed that Russia had fallen into fascism.
Despite the risks, Orlov made the choice, unlike many other critics of the Kremlin, to stay in Russia to “continue the fight”.
According to Memorial, the 2009 Sakharov Prize winner was transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 5 in northwest Moscow on March 11.
“Almost immediately” after his arrival, he was asked to sign a form saying he was willing to participate in Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine in exchange for his freedom.
Intimidation or job offer?
Orlov “laughingly asked if they weren’t worried about his age” – he will be 71 at the beginning of April –.
“They said nothing bothered them.”
And the dissident wrote “of course” that he did not agree to go and participate in a war that he disapproves of.
It is unclear whether the invitation to Orlov was serious or a form of intimidation.
Tens of thousands of Russian prisoners have been conscripted to fight in the Russian army or as mercenaries in Ukraine since the war began just over two years ago.
According to Olga Romanova, an exiled former journalist who campaigns for the rights of prisoners and opposition activists in Russia, Moscow recruited, between March 2022 and November 2023, 100,000 fighters in prison.
Common criminals serving sentences for serious crimes went to fight in Ukraine, increasing the number of abuses.
Also read: Ukraine: what are the Russian Storm Z battalions, made up of detainees and used like cannon fodder?
And their return to Russia, free, can pose a problem: a former Russian soldier who fought in Ukraine was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison for starting a fire in a nightclub which killed 13 people in November 2022. Drunk, Stanislav Ionkin , 23, had participated in a fight in a nightclub in the city of Kostroma, about 320 km from Moscow and fired a flare gun inside.
The roof of the building had caught fire.
He was also sentenced to a heavy fine, and stripped of his rank as guard sergeant and the medal awarded for courage in combat.