In colony IK-18 in the village of Potma, former head of the Karelian "Memorial" Yuri Dmitriev was sent to solitary confinement on January 17 for performing the exercise incorrectly, reported "Memorial"*.
In 2023, the historian was already sent to solitary confinement, then he sat on the bed during the day due to dizziness from medication. In 2022, Dmitriev was punished with solitary confinement for several reasons: he did not greet an administration representative in the proper form, did not put his hands behind his back when exiting, and allowed a cat to sleep on his bed.
Lawyers reported that the penalty will be appealed, although the experience of previous courts with the colony is negative — none of the previous confinements in solitary, despite the equally obvious absurdity of the stated reasons, were recognized as illegal.
In a week, on January 28, Yuri Dmitriev will turn 69, eight of which he has spent in detention. During all this time, he has not had a single full medical examination, while his health condition is noticeably deteriorating.
In 2021, the court sentenced Dmitriev to 15 years in the colony. He was accused of violent sexual acts against his adopted daughter. "Memorial" recognized him as a political prisoner. Yuri Dmitriev discovered Sandarmokh — a tract located 19 kilometers from Karelian Medvezhyegorsk. During the Stalinist terror, it became a place of mass executions, today it is one of the largest burial sites of the repressed: according to the "Memory Map" project, the names of more than six thousand people shot in Sandarmokh are known.
* Recognized in Russia as a "foreign agent".