Vyacheslav Nikonov’s statement on detention of public defender Alexander Gaponenko in Latvia

I am expressing my deepest concern and decisive protest against detention of enthusiastic human rights defender Alexander Gaponenko in Riga on April 20, 2018.

Alexander Gaponenko is a co-chairman of the Joint Congress of Russian Communities, chief executive officer of the Non-Citizens’ Congress and a persistent defender of the Russian schools in Latvia.

A rude detention of the public activist under the contrived pretext is apparent pursuit of his courageous attitudes contradicting politics of the Latvian authorities who openly distorted the freedoms of speech and expression. Repressive measures were demonstrated to the whole world in relation to the prominent representative of the Russian-speaking minority peacefully defending a natural right of his children to study in their native language at the background of Riga’s claims about its loyalty to democratic values.

The fact that Alexander Gaponenko is put to prison in Riga for 2 months proves that his detention is a means of pressure exerted on the Russian-speaking population in Latvia. He is not a young and healthy person placed under horrifying circumstances, which is abusive and cruel.

I am addressing the European Parliament members and social organizations, scientists and writers with a request to make everything possible in order to stop political prosecution of Alexander Gaponenko.

Vyacheslav Nikonov