A verdict in the second trial of Yury DMITRIEV is expected at the end of February. The prosecution and defence are currently summing up.

In April 2018, to the amazement of many, Dmitriev was acquitted of all the more serious charges. This time no one is hazarding a guess as to the outcome. Public interest within Russia remains high. If 4,000 signed a petition in the historian’s support during the first trial, over 10,000 have done so this time round.

Whatever the outcome it seems safe to predict that the losing side will appeal against the verdict to a higher court which, in this case, is the Supreme Court of the Karelian Republic. Waiting for that hearing will take us to early summer — and beyond, if the court of higher instance again supports conviction and prompts another wave of popular indignation.

For the time being, Yury Dmitriev remains in Petrozavodsk, in Detention Centre No 1, where he has been held since June 2018 and where he will stay until the Supreme Court issues its ruling. He has not yet vanished for years into a penal colony like his unfortunate colleague Sergei Koltyrin.

“The time is short,” wrote the poet, “but the waiting is long.”

JC