published: 27 January 2026
Free Yuri Dmitriev
The release of people persecuted by totalitarian regimes must remain a core priority of international diplomacy — even when diplomatic pressure cannot guarantee immediate results. Today, more than 4,600 people are imprisoned in Russia on politically motivated charges. All of them must be freed. But in some cases, the urgency is extreme: delay can cost a human life.
This is precisely the case of Yuri Dmitriev, one of the first political prisoners of the current wave of Putin’s repression. Arrested in December 2016 on fabricated charges, he has spent more than nine years behind bars. On January 28, 2026, he will turn 70 — a birthday he is set to spend in a maximum-security penal colony in Mordovia.
During his imprisonment, Dmitriev’s health has deteriorated severely. Several chronic illnesses have worsened, yet instead of receiving adequate medical care, he is regularly punished for being unwell. He has repeatedly been placed in solitary confinement for sitting on his bed during the day or for failing to perform morning exercises “actively enough.” Despite suspected cancer, Dmitriev has been denied essential diagnostic examinations for more than three years. Under his current sentence, he must remain in custody for another six years — but without proper medical care, this delay may prove fatal.
Yuri Dmitriev was targeted because of his work researching the history of Stalinist terror in Karelia in northern Russia and preserving the memory of its victims. As head of the Karelian branch of the Russian Memorial Society, he spent three decades locating mass burial sites, working with archival records, and reconstructing the fates of those killed during the Great Terror. Thanks to his efforts, numerous memorial sites were created, including the Sandarmokh memorial complex, one of the most significant execution sites of 1937–1938.
Dmitriev reconstructed the biographies of thousands of victims, including more than a hundred figures of Ukraine’s Executed Renaissance — writers, poets, and theatre directors erased by Stalinist repression. In 2014, he publicly condemned the actions of the Russian authorities in eastern Ukraine. His work has been recognised internationally, including the Golden Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2016), the Moscow Helsinki Group Award for the Defense of Human Rights (2018), the Lev Kopelev Award (2020), and the Andrei Sakharov Award of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (2020). His “reward” from the Russian authorities was a fabricated criminal case and a 15-year sentence in a strict-regime penal colony.
We call on government officials in the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, as well as representatives of international organisations, to use all available diplomatic and legal mechanisms to secure Yuri Dmitriev’s immediate release. His 70th birthday in custody is not only a moment to honour his life’s work — it may be his last chance to see his family again.
Oleg Orlov, co-chair of the Memorial Human Rights Center, former political prisoner
Ludmila Ulitskaya, writer, winner of Russian Booker prise (2001)
Nicolas Werth, historian, president of the Memorial France Association
Evgen Zakharov, human rights defender, director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group
Jonathan Littell, writer and essayist, winner of the Prix Goncourt (2006)
Tomasz Kizny, photographer, journalist
Agnieska Holland, film director
Adam Michnik, editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza
Berit Lindeman, secretary general of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee
Vladimir Kara-Murza, journalist, human rights defender, former political prisoner
Evgenia Kara-Murza, president and CEO of the 30 October Foundation
Anne Applebaum, historian, journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner
Svetlana Alexievich, writer and winner of Nobel Prize in Literature