Activist from ex-oligarch Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia could get 15 years behind bars for involvement in Belarus riots, says lawyer

An activist from Open Russia, a political group controlled by the former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has been detained in Minsk for involvement in “mass riots,” and is facing the possibility of a lengthy jail sentence.

That’s according to his lawyer Anton Gashinsky, who told Russian news agency RIA Novosti that the penalty is “between eight and 15 years in prison.”

Russian citizen Artyom Vazhenkov was arrested in the capital of Belarus on August 11, along with fellow activist Igor Rogov. Rogov was later released on the condition that he immediately leave the country and return to Russia, but Vazhenkov is still locked up.

“He covered the Belarusian election and published a video on polling day, and did not take part in anything illegal,” wrote Anastasia Burakova, Open Russia’s chairperson. She also claimed that Vazhenkov was severely beaten.

On Tuesday, Belarusian state news agency BelTA published a video of “provocateurs” suspected by the Belarusian Investigative Committee of having participated in riots. Among the detainees were Vazhenkov and Rogov.

Following the August 9 presidential election, thousands of Belarusian citizens took to the streets in protest at the official result, which stated that incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko had won 80.08 percent of the vote. The result has been widely contested across the world, with many believing that opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya received many more votes than her official share of 10.09 percent.

In Russia, politician Konstantin Zatulin from the pro-Putin United Russia party called the election “totally falsified,” and supported the widespread view that “the published results are not credible.” In the days following the vote, thousands of demonstrators were arrested, with some being severely beaten. Undeterred, four days after the election, many are still protesting.

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