On 20 June radio station Echo Moskvy broadcast appeals on behalf of YURY DMITRIEV by poet Dmitry Bykov and (from Petersburg) by the former leader of Aquarium, musician Boris Grebenshchikov.

It also published a list of several hundred people who have signed a petition in support of the historian. Dmitriev's trial is just entering it fourth week.


In Petrozavodsk City Court the hearing of the case of Yury Dmitriev, a well-known historian, continues. A Gulag researcher and compiler of several "Books of Memory", he is among those who created the memorial complexes at Sandarmokh and Krasny Bor, and the memorial graveyard at Sekirnaya Hill on Solovki. Dmitriev is accused of making child pornography, lewd acts and the unlawful possession of a firearm. The hearings are taking place behind closed doors and the media are not permitted into e courtroom. There are serious grounds for believing that the accusation is a deliberate provocation, aimed at ending the historian’s activities and destroying his reputation. [Read more]