Cases of Ingush activists and Shevchenko from Rostov are examples of political repression

The intensification of political repressions is noted throughout the country as a whole, and in Southern Russia, in particular, human rights defenders stated at a roundtable held in Moscow, citing the cases of Ingush activists and Anastasia Shevchenko from Rostov-on-Don as an example.

On October 30, the roundtable "Political Prisoners in Russia in 2019: Practices of Repression, Defence Methods, International Solidarity" was held at the Sakharov Centre, organized by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" and the Boris Nemtsov Fund for Freedom, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, who was present at the event, reports.

Despite the fact that since 1991, October 30 has been included into the list of officially marked holidays as the Remembrance Day of the Victims of Political Repressions, in recent years this day has acquired its original meaning and became the Day of Political Prisoners, Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Chairman of the Boris Nemtsov Fund for Freedom, has stated.

According to his story, by the number of political prisoners, Russia is now ahead of the USSR of the mid-1970s, when the Day of Political Prisoners was marked for the first time.

"In 1975, Andrei Sakharov in his Nobel Speech named 126 political prisoners. Now, according to the HRC "Memorial", there are 314 political prisoners in Russia," Mr Kara-Murza has stated.

The roundtable participants have especially highlighted two cases related to the regions of Southern Russia – the case of Anastasia Shevchenko from the Rostov Region and repressions in Ingushetia.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 3, 2019 at 03:19 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.