The United Nations' refugee agency is concerned about anti-Vladimir Putin activist Leonid Razvozzhaev, who came to Kyiv seeking refugee status, went missing and then ended up back in Russia. Authorities in Russia say he is being jailed for allegedly planning riots against the Russian president.
Razvozzhaev came into the U.N. office in Kyiv on Oct. 18. They sent him to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, an international non-governmental
organization that provided legal support of his refugee appeal. On the next day
he came to the aid society to register and start preparations, but mysteriously
disappeared soon after.
“He left their
office for a lunch in the afternoon and disappeared,” said Oleksandra Makovska,
spokeswoman of Ukraine’s UNHCR office. “His things were left (in the office),
but he didn’t come back,” Makovska added. “We are
concerned that a person has disappeared just in the middle of the day, and
nobody knows what happened and how.”
Razvozzhaev was
reported to be found in Moscow prison on Oct. 21, his colleague, Russian
lawmaker Ilya Ponomarev said, according to Russian media.
Makovska didn’t
comment on the reports about the possible kidnapping of the Russian opposition activist,
saying this information hasn’t been officially confirmed yet.
Razvozzhaev was
sought in Russia after an
anti-opposition documentary Anatomy of a Protest was
broadcast by the pro-Kremlin TV channel, charging him and his
colleagues in preparing mass riots in Russia.
Russian officials said Razvozzhaev
voluntary surrendered to country’s law enforcement agencies on Oct. 21, as RIA
Novosti reported.
The Security Service of Ukraine told Interfax news agency that the “law enforcers are probing the circumstances in
which he arrived in Ukraine and then left.” As of Oct. 22, SBU hadn’t issued any official statement.
This case resembles
the story of Palestinian engineer Dirar Abu Sisi, who vanished from a
Kharkiv-Kyiv sleeper train on Feb. 19. 2011, and appeared in Israeli jail just on
the next day. Since then, Abu Sisi has been kept in prison, charged with being a
terrorist and crimes against the security of Israel. The Palestinian claims he is
innocent.
