Tags
absolute power, dictatorship, fascist nationalism, Joseph Stalin, political criminality, punitive psychiatry, Stalin, Stalin Era, Vladimir Putin, Yuri Dmitriev
President Vladimir Putin’s paranoid and punitive Russian state had taken Soviet Era type action against the fellow to the left, Yuri Dmitriev, in apparent retaliation for Dmitriev’s investigations of Stalin Era mass graves, the final evidence of the mass murdering that must have filled them. The manner of action taken: “kompromat” — pictures of his undressed daughter framed by the regime as illicit for a show trial and consignment, for a while, to a psychiatric facility for evaluation.
Excerpt from the latest press release circulated by human rights advocate Elizabeth Childs:
His attorney, Victor Anufriev, says that Dmitriev is not out of danger yet. The date of the next hearing in the trial has not been announced, and it is not known if the Serbsky Institute also assessed whether nine photographs of Dmitriev’s daughter submitted in evidence should be considered pornographic in nature — a sticking point in the trial, as the prosecution has failed in several attempts to have expert analysts deem them as such. “I am sure that the prosecutor’s office will continue to pursue its goal of imprisoning Dmitriev at any cost and find some grubby organization that will give them the results they want,” Anufriev told the 7×7 news site.
Husband and Father Yuri Dmitriev at Home
Included with the Childs’ press release: Anna Artemyeva’s photo for Novaya Gazeta, January 27, 2018.
Previously in BackChannels
Dangerous History: Russia Slides Backward: A Note on Yuri Dmitriev and Moscow’s Return to Politically Directed “Punitive Psychiatry” (Jan. 11, 2018).
Additional Background and Update
At the end of December, an expert group found no pornographic content in the pictures, and the court, in Karelia, a region in northwestern Russia, refused to extend his detention beyond Jan. 28.
But at the same time, the court took a chapter from the Stalinist past, ordering that Mr. Dmitriev be sent to Moscow for psychiatric tests while also asking for a new review of the photographs by other experts.
Reuters. “Russian Stalin-era Great Terror exposer freed from jail pending trial.” January 27, 2018.
Memorial Human Rights Center (Old Web):
The Human Rights Center “Memorial” is a self-governed noncommercial civil organization, whose members are united by humanistic and moral principles and the aspiration to assist the defense of human rights and the formation of people’s civil dignity.
Foundation date: April 1st , 1993.
European Network: Remembrance and Solidarity. “Russian society “Memorial”. October 16, 2014.
Further Reference Ongoing
English language updates: The Dmitriev Affair
Faceook: Free Yuri Dmitriev (English)
Twitter: @FreeYuDmitriev
MEMORIAL: An International Historical, Educational, Human Rights And Charitable Society
Related on site: “Yuri Dmitriyev Released from Detention.” January 1, 2018.
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