Ecologists urge IOC to demand to stop repressions against Russian activists

The Greenpeace, the Russian Branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Biodiversity Conservation Centre have sent to Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), a letter, in which they raised the issue of repressions against ecological activists on the eve of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on the eve of the XXII Olympic Games in Sochi, the organization "Amnesty International" (AI) has issued a report on the human rights situation in Russia. The report states that "the discriminatory laws adopted in the past year in Russia, gave an impetus to the development of homophobia and harassment NGOs and some activists."

The letter provides the information about the persecution of a number of ecologists, especially of Evgeny Vitishko, a member of the Board of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EWNC). The ecologist was to report regularly to the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN) during more than six months as a person conditionally sentenced in the case of destruction of the fence at the Tkachov's summer cottage.

"It's amazing: the ecologist is accused of the fact that he wrote two words on the fence that protected the illegally occupied territory under the official's summer residence. And not the official, but Evgeny Vitishko was brought to trial. The criminal case was fabricated. Meanwhile, the court failed to reveal the ecologists' guilt and legality of building a fence," the authors of the letter emphasize.