Do you think the KGB disappeared with the Soviet Union collapse? You are completely wrong – it changed its name and became the FSB, wich has no changes in methods of work and resemble the Middle Ages horrors.

One of the most resonant criminal cases in Russia over recent years has been the trial of Yuri Dmitriev, head of the “Memorial” society Karelian branch.

In December 2016, Yuri Dmitriev was arrested on the basis of an anonymous denunciation and charged with making child pornography. On April 5, 2018, the Petrozavodsk City Court fully acquitted him of this article, recognizing the historian’s right to rehabilitation and compensation.

However, on June 27, 2018, Dmitriev was detained, and a day later he was arrested under the article “Sexual assault” (punishment up to 20 years imprisonment). The process was conducted confidentially – like all cases involving sexual acts against minors.

The initiators of this case are striving for any cost. Responsibility for the illegal organization of criminal cases, illegal – for about three years – the detention of innocent people and in psychiatric institutions.

The initiators of this case are striving at all costs to prevent justification, to denigrate and convict Yu. Dmitriev, so as not to be responsible for the illegal organization of criminal cases, the illegal – for about three years – detention an innocent person in custody and in psychiatric institutions.

This is clearly evidenced by the dirty campaign organized in the media, including federal channels of the Russian Federation, against Y. Dmitriev, who was already declared a criminal all over the country without any decision of the trial: distribution the photos of the girl from the investigation materials, which can only be obtained from the security forces hands, putting pressure on specialists.

The criminal case against Dmitriev was initiated and developed simultaneously with the active promotion in the pro-state media of an alternative version of the Sandarmokh burials origin. According to it, about 20 thousand Soviet prisoners of war who were shot to death by the Finns during the Second World War are buried there. To confirm this version, in the summer of 2018 (when Dmitriev was in jail), an expedition of the Russian Military Historical Society came to Sandarmokh…

The closed trial against the head of the “Memorial” society Karelian branch is based on the desire to drown out the memory of the repressions and to deal with Dmitriev, who pulled out undeniable evidence of the Soviet (read Russian) history black pages. The Russian authorities are seeking to rewrite the history of Sandarmokh, slandering its discoverer and groundlessly accusing Dmitriev of a heinous crime.

Dozens of public figures, artists, writers and musicians expressed support for Dmitriev.

On June 14, 2020, Nobel Prize winners in literature Svetlana Aleksievich and Gerta Müller, as well as Goncourt Prize laureate Jonathan Littell, addressed the Council of Europe (CoE) Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatović with an open letter in support for Yuri Dmitriev.

We call on the world community, the expert community, the media to closely follow the case of Yuri Dmitriev and not allow the Russian authorities to deal with a worthy person who devoted thirty years of his life to restoring and preserving the memory of the Great Terror – 1937-1938 years Stalin’s mass repressions – innocent victims. The tragic pages of History must not be allowed to be silenced and distorted.