Pressure on Russian opposition continues

A number of politicians, journalists, activists, lawyers and academics have signed a letter published by Ekho Moskvy in support of Andrei Pivovarov, the co-founder of the Petersburg branch of the PARNAS party and head of the PARNAS election headquarters in Kostroma Oblast, who was detained in one of Kostroma's police stations on July 27. Read the full letter in English here "Not having any evidence, the investigators fabricated a criminal case against Andrei Pivovarov literally on the back of a napkin, charging him with violating article 272 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to this article, the fact of the commission of a crime occurs only in the event that some kind of effects have come about. In the given situation, one of the following events was supposed to have taken place: blocking, destruction, copying, or modification of data. But there were neither these effects nor the intent for them to occur, meaning that there is no crime.. (…) We are convinced that Andrei Pivovarov has not acted in any criminal way. The task he was given was to submit real and valid signatures so as to allow the participation in the elections of the Democratic Coalition, and minimise the damage caused by signature-gatherers acting in bad faith. (…)" Mikhail Khodorkovsky commented on Twitter: "I know Pivovarov personally. I'm aware of the situation in Kostroma. A purely political matter of fawning local idiots." "The entire criminal case against Andrei Pivovarov is built on lies and fear. The Kostroma investigators had no scruples about breaking into the Petersburg apartment of Andrei Pivovarov's invalid mother, with the support of SOBR [Special Rapid Reaction Division]. Having intimidated the woman, the investigators rooted around in her personal possessions for three hours. (…) We consider the false criminal case in relation to Andrei Pivovarov to be politically motivated. We demand the immediate release of Andrei Pivovarov, because he has not committed any crime." Read the list of signatories here On August 6, Boris Khodorkovsky was interrogated at the Investigative Committee headquarters in Moscow. The interrogation session, which lasted two-and-a-half hours, focused on the murder case of the mayor of Nefteyugansk. The 82-year-old father of Mikhail Khodorkovsky made only the briefest of comments regarding the questioning – "The questions had nothing to do with anything". IC investigator Yuri Burtovoy, who summonsed Boris Khodorkovsky for questioning, had previously handled the case of former Yukos employee Alexey Pichugin, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Nefteyugansk mayor Vladimir Petukhov. Share Tweet Read more On August 8, activists from the Novosibirsk headquarters of the Democratic Coalition decided to call off a hunger strike they had announced in protest against the government's barring of opposition party candidates from regional elections. They resolved to do so after pleas from three coalition leaders:  Parnas party chairman Mikhail Kasyanov, Party of Progress leader Alexei Navalny, and Open Russia chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky. MBK tweeted: "I applaud the determination of the Democratic Coalition's Novosibirsk HQ to go all the way, and I've experience of this myself, but I nevertheless appeal to them to call off the hunger strike. There's more battles to be fought." Share Tweet Read more Facebook Twitter Medium Website Copyright © 2015 Khodorkovsky.com, All rights reserved. Subscribe to receive the news from Open Russia  | Unsubscribe from all Open Russia email | Update your subscriptions