On September 4, 2024, for the first time, a video link was held with Russian citizen Konstantin Nikulin, a former Riga riot police officer accused of complicity in an attack on a customs post on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border in 1991. He is now serving a life sentence in a Lithuanian prison. Our State is doing everything it can to ease his imprisonment and eventually see him free. One of thousands of examples of innocently convicted Russians abroad.
Konstantin Nikulin, a former USSR Interior Ministry employee and a fighter of the Riga OMON, was detained in 2007, 16 years after the incident at a customs checkpoint in Lithuania. He was charged on the basis of one witness statement and the words of three anonymous witnesses who did not accuse him directly. For 16 years he was kept in solitary confinement - a 7 x 2 meter cage. Through the efforts of the Russian Embassy, he was transferred to a general cell.
Konstantin has a heart condition and a pacemaker, on which the settings have gone astray. But he is not allowed to see a cardiologist again. The Fund for Support and Assistance to Compatriots Living Abroad has provided him with the assistance of a lawyer. But his appeal to the ECHR does not yield any results: the ECHR has not responded for four years, and the next lawyer's request was answered that if you continue to disturb him, we will close the case. It turns out that the deadline for consideration of cases in the ECHR is not set, and the Lithuanian lobby drags out in it to help Nikulin.
“There is serious support from the Russian state. This is not pathos. I am modestly pulling my prisoner's cross, and they are doing complicated work to save me. The prison authorities ignored their own rules (if there are no remarks, solitary confinement is changed to open regime after 10 years) and it was torture. Thank you to everyone who supports me. I receive letters from people I don't know, and this is important to me,” said Konstantin Nikulin.
Alexander Udaltsov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Lithuania (2013-2020), Executive Director of the Foundation for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad, answered him: “The whole fight for you is still ahead! Get ready for a serious fight for your freedom.”
Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot arrested in 2010 in Liberia by US intelligence agencies and convicted in the US on charges of smuggling banned substances, was released thanks to the Foundation for the Support and Defense of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad. He noted, “After I talked to journalists in prison, I was put in a punishment cell. Therefore, I understand the risks Konstantin has taken now to talk to us.”
Maria Butina, a member of the State Duma and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, agreed with Konstantin Yaroshenko because she too was subjected to such punishments in prison for communicating with the press: “My cellmates treated me the better, the worse the American television told about me. She said that today in Germany people with Russian surnames are not allowed to open bank accounts. Cases are being opened against SWO participants. And the leaders among the countries discrediting Russians are the Baltic states. “A Russian is always evil, it's either a spy, or a mafioso, or a cybercriminal. And 'Russian wife' is an analog of the word 'prostitute',” Maria Butina is indignant. She urged her compatriots to refrain from traveling abroad during this difficult period.
Alexander Udaltsov voiced the figures: 8857 of our fellow citizens are in custody, of which only 2 thousand - by court decision, and the fate of the rest is still unclear. “There is discrimination against our citizens, because they are just Russians, speak Russian, their deportations are carried out, and in the host countries they are accused of espionage, interference in internal affairs and incitement of ethnic hatred,” - said the diplomat.
Konstantin Yaroshenko noted that the Orthodox faith of the Moscow Patriarchate is an aggravating circumstance in the United States in prison, and you are not allowed to perform your religious rites.
There is another blatant example of illegal claims against our businessmen. On Thursday, Vladimir Putin said of Pavel Durov: “We did not have any claims against him. I know that many countries have made complaints about the fact that the platform is being used in a certain way by some structures that can harm the economy or security. But this is something that all platforms of this kind do. If Durov is treated in this way, then others should also be shut down, arrested or put under house arrest or some other kind of arrest involving restriction of freedom”. Butina said: “How the Durov case will end is unknown. But we should not be naive. He cooperated with foreign intelligence services, he banned RT from his Telegram account. Now there is a public flogging for political reasons.” Alexander Udaltsov is sure that Putin has answered everything clearly about Durov. And our embassy in France immediately responded to his arrest, but he himself did not ask Russia for help.
Author: Ioanna Kovaleva
Konstantin Nikulin, a former USSR Interior Ministry employee and a fighter of the Riga OMON, was detained in 2007, 16 years after the incident at a customs checkpoint in Lithuania. He was charged on the basis of one witness statement and the words of three anonymous witnesses who did not accuse him directly. For 16 years he was kept in solitary confinement - a 7 x 2 meter cage. Through the efforts of the Russian Embassy, he was transferred to a general cell.
Konstantin has a heart condition and a pacemaker, on which the settings have gone astray. But he is not allowed to see a cardiologist again. The Fund for Support and Assistance to Compatriots Living Abroad has provided him with the assistance of a lawyer. But his appeal to the ECHR does not yield any results: the ECHR has not responded for four years, and the next lawyer's request was answered that if you continue to disturb him, we will close the case. It turns out that the deadline for consideration of cases in the ECHR is not set, and the Lithuanian lobby drags out in it to help Nikulin.
“There is serious support from the Russian state. This is not pathos. I am modestly pulling my prisoner's cross, and they are doing complicated work to save me. The prison authorities ignored their own rules (if there are no remarks, solitary confinement is changed to open regime after 10 years) and it was torture. Thank you to everyone who supports me. I receive letters from people I don't know, and this is important to me,” said Konstantin Nikulin.
Alexander Udaltsov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Lithuania (2013-2020), Executive Director of the Foundation for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad, answered him: “The whole fight for you is still ahead! Get ready for a serious fight for your freedom.”
Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot arrested in 2010 in Liberia by US intelligence agencies and convicted in the US on charges of smuggling banned substances, was released thanks to the Foundation for the Support and Defense of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad. He noted, “After I talked to journalists in prison, I was put in a punishment cell. Therefore, I understand the risks Konstantin has taken now to talk to us.”
Maria Butina, a member of the State Duma and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, agreed with Konstantin Yaroshenko because she too was subjected to such punishments in prison for communicating with the press: “My cellmates treated me the better, the worse the American television told about me. She said that today in Germany people with Russian surnames are not allowed to open bank accounts. Cases are being opened against SWO participants. And the leaders among the countries discrediting Russians are the Baltic states. “A Russian is always evil, it's either a spy, or a mafioso, or a cybercriminal. And 'Russian wife' is an analog of the word 'prostitute',” Maria Butina is indignant. She urged her compatriots to refrain from traveling abroad during this difficult period.
Alexander Udaltsov voiced the figures: 8857 of our fellow citizens are in custody, of which only 2 thousand - by court decision, and the fate of the rest is still unclear. “There is discrimination against our citizens, because they are just Russians, speak Russian, their deportations are carried out, and in the host countries they are accused of espionage, interference in internal affairs and incitement of ethnic hatred,” - said the diplomat.
Konstantin Yaroshenko noted that the Orthodox faith of the Moscow Patriarchate is an aggravating circumstance in the United States in prison, and you are not allowed to perform your religious rites.
There is another blatant example of illegal claims against our businessmen. On Thursday, Vladimir Putin said of Pavel Durov: “We did not have any claims against him. I know that many countries have made complaints about the fact that the platform is being used in a certain way by some structures that can harm the economy or security. But this is something that all platforms of this kind do. If Durov is treated in this way, then others should also be shut down, arrested or put under house arrest or some other kind of arrest involving restriction of freedom”. Butina said: “How the Durov case will end is unknown. But we should not be naive. He cooperated with foreign intelligence services, he banned RT from his Telegram account. Now there is a public flogging for political reasons.” Alexander Udaltsov is sure that Putin has answered everything clearly about Durov. And our embassy in France immediately responded to his arrest, but he himself did not ask Russia for help.
Author: Ioanna Kovaleva