Marietje Schaake, author. – Madam President, Oleg Sentsov, who spoke out against the illegal annexation of Crimea, was arrested and is serving a 20 year sentence in the gulag. Let’s not forget that this is the reality of Russia as people watch the World Cup. It is steps like these in which Putin’s regime reveals itself most clearly. Sentsov is one of 158 political prisoners, a number that has been rising sharply. Memorial, a Sakharov Prize—winning human rights organisation, has kept this list and now Oyub Titiev of Memorial in Chechnya was also arrested. This worrying trend of repression is underlined by the fact that Russia loses most cases before the European Court of Human Rights.

We call for the unconditional release of all political prisoners and human rights defenders and urge Russian authorities to respect people’s rights, including when they’re in detention. It means fair trials, an end to torture and confessions extracted under torture, access to lawyers and doctors, etcetera.

It is, first and foremost, in the interests of the Russian people that civil society organisations and media can do their work without intimidation and in freedom.