The chairman of the Karelian branch of Memorial, Yury Dmitriev, one of the discoverers of Sandarmokh and a founder of its memorial complex, was arrested at his flat on Friday, 13 December. His computer and mobile phone were confiscated and the same day the adoption agency took Dmitriev’s 11-year-old adopted daughter from school.
The day before, says his common-law wife, who is currently in hospital, they found signs that someone had been in their apartment. Memorial representative and member of the President’s council on Human Rights, Sergei Krivenko, believes that these events might be a provocation aimed at discrediting the Memorial Society.
(Translation in progress – full Russian text follows.)
The Dmitriev Affair 