Boris Kagarlitsky's lawyer, Sergey Erokhov, has published some bad news on his Telegram channel (https://t.me/erdejure--Kagarlitsky is being transferred from a pre-trial detention centre to a penal colony today. It is not yet clear what this means, but the Russian authorities have clearly expedited his case.

It is unknown where exactly Kagarlitsky is being sent. Indeed, Russian prison authorities are under no obligation to immediately inform the families of prisoners of their new location on transfer.

The only constraint on them is that the penal settlement to which they are sent cannot be more than 600 kilometres from the address of the prisoner’s family.

This action has taken place while Boris Kagarlitsky still has an appeal against his five-year jail term before the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. It is expected to be heard sometime in May-June.

In the light of this latest move by the Russian authorities, it  becomes all the more urgent for the campaign for Boris Kagarlitsky’s release to redouble its efforts. This means:

• Getting the petitions for his release known by all those supporters of democratic rights who have yet to hear about Kagarlitsky’s case and will certainly sign on once they are aware of it, and:
• Bringing the case to the attention of important political, academic and cultural figures whose opposition to Kagarlitsky’s jialing might make the Kremlin authorities think twice about having his appeal rejected.

SUPPORTERS  OF FREEDOM FOR BORIS KAGARLITSKY SHOULD GET ACTIVE ALONG BOTH THESE LINES 

So far, the petition campaign on the freeboris.info and Change! web sites has collected more than 15,000 signatures from 100 countries, but there is a long way to go.

Let’s look to double, triple and quadruple that number in the run-up to Kagarlitsky’s appeal.

Boris Kagarlitsky’s condition

As soon as we have any information about Boris Kagarlitsky’s whereabouts, we will immediately post it on freeboris.info and as an update under our Change! petition, as well as on our other social media platforms.

In the meantime, our Russian campaigners tell us that Boris has a two-week supply of necessary items and medications, and they thank everyone who has donated for the packages and deliveries he has received.

However, they also warn that writing letters to the Zelenograd pre-trial detention centre address no longer makes sense. For those outside Russia the only way to help Boris Kagarlitsky directly now is by sending a donation to his legal expenses and family support fund, at https://taplink.cc/freeboriskagarlitsky