An appeal to the world leaders

A group of Russian human rights activists, politicians, and scientists wrote an open to the world leaders, calling their attention to the string of political trials in Russia:

We are convinced of the fact that Mr. Sutyagin, Mr. Danilov, Mr. Trepashkin, Ms. Murtazalieva, Mr. Khodorkovskiy and Mr. Lebedev’s conviction was politically motivated and is meant as a deterrent regarding the society in general and Russian intelligentsia in particular.

The European Union countries and their heads have adopted a tolerant attitude towards a repressive system established in Russia, omnipotence of special services, judiciary that is dependent upon the executive power and Mr. Putin personally, who is the ideologist of a cruel suppression of the opposition. Such attitude is nurturing new dictators in Europe.

Among those who signed the letter are Lyudmila Alekseeva, Moscow Helsinki Group, Vitaliy Ginzburg, Academician, Nobel Prize winner, Garri Kasparov, United Civil Front, world chess champion, Grigoriy Pasko, journalist, and others.

(Full text of the letter in Russian and in English.)