Arrest of Protesters puts Focus on Russian Suppression of Dissent
Sochi: Russia’s suppression of dissent during the Winter Games is again under the spotlight, after two protesters were arrested in Sochi.
A former Italian MP claims she was arrested at the Olympic site on Sunday while queuing to buy a ticket and brandishing a banner saying “It’s OK to be gay”. On Monday police detained an activist in central Sochi, who was holding a solo protest against a three-year prison sentence given last week to environmental activist Yevgeny Vitishko.
On Sunday, Vladimir Luxuria, a prominent gay rights campaigner who was Europe’s first openly transgender MP, reportedly called for help after she was detained by police.
Ms Luxuria later told reporters she was approached by two men in plain clothes in the Olympic village while she held up the banner. She said she was not released until early Monday morning, and was told not to display pro-gay slogans in public.
“I think it is important [to have] the opportunity to talk internationally about these things because otherwise these things happen in Russia and nobody knows, nobody cares,” she said.
Earlier that day she had tweeted a photo of herself at the Olympic village brandishing a rainbow fan and wearing a rainbow skirt, saying in Italian “I’m in Sochi! Regards with the colors of the rainbow, in the face of Putin!”
Russia’s new law banning gay propaganda has attracted widespread criticism as a breach of human rights and a potential danger to gay Russians and visitors to the country.
However, Sochi 2014 spokeswoman Aleksandra Kosterina said on Monday that organisers had spoken to police and there was “no record whatsoever” of any arrest.
International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said the Games should not be used as a platform for demonstrations.
On Monday, police in the town of Sochi arrested an activist who was holding a solo protest.
David Khakim held up a sign saying “Free Yevgeny Vitishko” in a park in the city, next to the Olympic rings. He was protesting against a three-year prison sentence given to the fellow environmental activist.
Vitishko, a 40-year-old geologist, had campaigned against the environmental damage caused by the development of Sochi for the Winter Olympics.
Last Wednesday a court found that he had violated the terms of a three-year suspended sentence, from a 2012 conviction for spray-painting and damaging the fence of a property linked to Krasnodar’s regional governor.
Vitishko and other members of the group Environmental Watch on North Caucasus had been drawing attention to what they said was an illegal fence in a public forest.
Fellow activists said Vitishko has begun a hunger strike in jail.
According to other Environmental Watch activists, police accused Mr Khakim of “unsanctioned picket and lack of patriotism”.
He was asked to leave the park, and when he insisted his protest was within the law, he was taken to Sochi’s central police station and charged with unauthorised picketing, which according to one report carries a fine of about $1000.
Mr Khakim tweeted a photo of police writing up the charge. He also said on Twitter that police had arrested him after telling him his passport was not a sufficient form of identification.
The activists said the court hearing on the charge was held behind closed doors “out of security concerns”.
Originally Russia had said no demonstrations would be allowed near the Olympics. But in January Russian authorities designated a small park in the town of Khosta, more than 10 kilometres away from the Olympic venues, as the "official protest zone" of the Winter Olympics. It is not widely used.
Comments