STATEMENT BY THE BOARD OF THE INTERNET SOCIETY — BULGARIA
Internet Society — Bulgaria (ISOC - Bulgaria) is expressing its serious concerns about the imprisonment* of one of the fathers of the Russian Internet - Alexey Soldatov - and is calling upon the Russian authorities to urgently release him.
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Mr. Soldatov is a prominent scientist, has worked as deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute, deputy minister of telecommunications, and is recognized widely as the founder of Runet - the Russian segment of the Internet.
He was convicted to two years prison time, allegedly for “power abuse”, and sent directly to the detention center, where he was being refused medical treatment for almost a month.
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Mr. Soldatov (72-year old) in recent years has survived two cancer-related surgeries, has chronic cardiovascular and other health-related issues. A news article published by MK on Monday, August 26, reports about the critical condition in which Mr. Soldatov currently is. He has high temperature, problems breathing and his left lung is practically not working.
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The same news outlet reported earlier in August that Mr. Soldatov was left to sleep on the cement floor, as he was put in a cell with 40 other prisoners. As of yesterday, Mr. Soldatov has been transferred to another prison, where there is some basic medical treatment, still a far cry from what is needed for a person, who is old and seriously ill.
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ISOC - Bulgaria calls upon other Internet Society organizations, Internet pioneers, engineers, scientists and online activists around the world to urge their governments to reach out to Kremlin and request the immediate release of Mr. Alexey Soldatov, while his appeal process is pending. It is not unusual also to have suspended sentences for people, who have not committed crimes before, even for the Russian court system.
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