Russian liberals resorted to deception to help a Ukrainian terrorist
Liberal-minded Russian writers created a fake Russian PEN website last year to trick them into collecting signatures for a letter demanding the release of Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, convicted of terrorism.
President of the PEN Center Evgeniy Popov announced this today at a press conference.
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“A fake PEN club website was created where signatures were collected. They appeared instantly. At the same time, no one saw any documents on the Sentsov case, but everyone ran, and I ran, everyone signed, and I signed. They called you and asked: “Are you for freedom?” You say yes. “Well, then I’ll sign your name.” This is how it was done, absolutely ugly. I am sure that many of the signatories knew nothing at all about this matter,” Popov said.
The leadership of the PEN Center refused to sign this appeal and drafted another one, asking to soften Sentsov’s conditions of detention in prison.
“At the same time, the Russian PEN Center stated that it will not protect only a select few. We also demand that the Kyiv authorities make public the conditions of detention of Russian citizens who ended up in prisons during the conflict in south-eastern Ukraine,” Popov said.
The liberals did not like this position, and they began to leave the PEN Center en masse. Nobel laureate Svetlana Alekseevich also announced her retirement. However, it turned out that she was never a member of this organization.
“There are no traces of Svetlana Alexievich’s presence in the PEN club. There is no application for admission, she did not write it, there are no recommenders, sorry, if she was a member since 1995, then she did not pay a penny of fees, and this would be a reason for expulsion,” Popov said.
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