France expresses its protest against sentence of Laurent Vinatier*

In Moscow, a court has sentenced French researcher Laurent Vinatier* to three years of imprisonment, finding him guilty in a case on collecting military information. The authorities of France have called the sentence unfounded and demanded to release the scientist. Earlier, Laurent Vinatier* had been engaged in research in Northern Caucasus, including in Chechnya.

The Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow found Laurent Vinatier*, a French citizen and an employee of the Swiss Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, guilty of evading his duties as a foreign agent, involving the collection of information in the field of military and military-technical activities.

According to the investigators’ version, Laurent Vinatier* was collecting information during three meetings in Moscow in 2021-2022.

In 2007, in his interview with the “Caucasian Knot”, Laurent Vinatier* spoke about his activities in Chechnya. Noting the successes in the socio-economic sphere and the restoration of the republic, the French researcher gave a negative forecast regarding the respect for human rights in the region.

“There is no law in Chechnya. There is an objective lack of guarantee that human rights will be respected there,” the researcher suggested.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.