Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 10 – Apparently not
satisfied simply with sending Yevgeny Vitishko to a prison camp for three years
for his exposes of environmental depradation by the authorities in advance of
the Sochi Olympiad, the commanders of the facility where he is serving his
sentence are seeking to set other prisoners against him and thus make his life
unbearable.
Vitishko told visitors from his
Ecological Watch on the North Caucasus group that the camp administration has “begun
to conduct active ‘work’ directed at the formation among [other prisoners of
anger against him in order to make the conditions of imprisonment unbearable” (sobkorr.ru/news/53957999A91E3.html).
What apparently prompted the
authorities to take such steps – among other things, they told other prisoners
that Vitishko was responsible for the fact that they couldn’t make telephone
calls out – was the environmental activist’s report two weeks ago about the
mass beatings of prisoners at that facility (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=537F04B91EC3F&rand=1402305314).
Most of those who suffered as a
result were forced to write declarations that they had no complaints about the
actions of the prison authorities, an effort by the latter to cover up what
they had done and a clear violation of the UN Convention against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhumane or Denigrating Punishments, Vitisho said.
Mobilizing ordinary prisoners
against those jailed for what the authorities consider “political” crimes is
something redolent of the worst day of Stalinism. At the same time, it is
another form of crime that is consistent with the Putin regime’s use of
plausibly deniable tactics against its opponents as in the subversion of
Ukraine by “little green men” and others.
Vitishko’s only “crime” was
reporting on the violations of Russian law by officials and oligarchs in
advance of the Sochi Olympics. Now, he is at risk of becoming the victim of
another form of illegal action, violence orchestrated by camp administrators in
the hope of silencing him permanently.
To prevent that from happening, his
case, which was much reported while the international media was focused on
Sochi but which has attracted less attention since, must not be forgotten. If
the camp bosses get away with what they appear to hope for, others, including
more prominent incarcerated individuals, will be at risk.
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