Expert on Stalin terror put in punitive solitary confinement

Prominent historian Yuri Dmitriyev, who had been unearthing Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's crimes in the northern Russian republic of Karelia, was put into punitive solitary confinement for 6 days in prison, the human rights organization Memorial reported.  

“The official reason for the penalty was the incorrect performance of morning exercises… In March 2023, he was already subjected to a similar punishment - 15 days in solitary confinement for sitting on a bed during the day (he felt dizzy from the medication he was taking),” - Memorial wrote in its Telegram channel. 

Dmitriev was detained in 2016 and accused by the prosecution of engaging in "child pornography”. After an anonymous tip-off, police searched his flat and reported that they found naked images of his foster daughter. 

Dmitriyev insisted the photos were taken to document the child's growth. 

“The main part of them [photos] was done to monitor the physical condition of the child, weakened after the orphanage”, Memorial states on its website. 

In 2017 the Memorial recognized the case against Yuri Dmitriyev as fabricated and declared him a political prisoner. 

In 2018 Russian court ruling acquitted Dmitriyev of the main charges, but later the case was opened again, and in 2021 the court in the city of Petrozavodsk sentenced Dmitriyev to 15 years. This time he was charged with sexual assault against his foster daughter. 

Lawyers and human rights activists insist that the case against Dmitriyev is fabricated to blacken the image of the historian known for helping open a memorial in the forest of Sandarmokh in Karelia to the thousands of victims murdered there during Stalin's political repressions in 1937 and 1938. 

“The charges … are based on the testimony of a teenage girl who was forcibly separated from the family that raised her, who was isolated and under psychological pressure from her new guardian, psychologist and investigative bodies. At the same time, during the conversation, the girl’s own words were subjected to a biased interpretation, which was then imposed on her by the psychologist and investigator as an opinion,” Memorial stated. 

68-year-old Yuri Dmitriyev is currently serving his 15-year term in the penal colony IK-18 in the village of Potma, Mordovia region.