Today marks three years since Vadim Kobzev and Alexei Liptser, two of the lawyers who defended the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, were arrested and imprisoned in Russia. For three years, they have been isolated from their loved ones and held in unjust detention simply for doing their jobs.
Kobzev and Liptser were targeted with “extremism” charges, sentenced to five and a half and five years each, and are now serving their sentences in remote Russian colonies because they worked diligently as lawyers for Navalny, defending him against the Kremlin’s persecution.
Putin’s Russia has ramped up its targeting of lawyers in an attempt to further stack the deck against anyone who dares to speak out against the regime. As HRF Chair @yulia_navalnaya wrote, by targeting Navalny’s lawyers, Putin revealed how far he will go to eliminate opposition.
In January, HRF petitioned the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, requesting that it declare Kobzev and Liptser’s ongoing detention arbitrary. Today, HRF calls for the immediate release of Vadim Kobzev and Alexei Liptser and calls on the international community to hold Russia accountable for its unending attempts to dismantle the rule of law.
