“You can’t shut everyone up. If that puts me in prison, then so be it. It’s much easier for my voice to be heard all the
stronger,” said Alexander Skobow on 21 March 2025

Alexander Skobov in court in a security cell – called an aquarium. Photo: Dmitry Zyganov

When he was sentenced by the First Western Military Court in Moscow to 16 years in prison for justifying terrorism* and membership of a terrorist organisation*. His crime: He had labelled the war against Ukraine as fascist and called for the end of the Putin regime. Putin’s anti-terror laws are a tool for suppressing freedom of expression. Therefore, the voice of truth is a form of resistance.

Skobov had already made a name for himself in the Soviet Union when, as a member of the ‘Free Trade Union Movement’ (SMOT), he distributed leaflets against the policies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). In 1983, he was forcibly treated for this in a psychiatric detention centre in what was then Leningrad, which can be read about in the documentation ‘Psychiatry as a political weapon’ published by the ISHRin 1986. During the Gorbachev and Yeltsin era, he worked as a history teacher. In 1997, he published a textbook on the political history of Russia for secondary school students.

As a staunch opponent of the Chechen wars, he came under particular scrutiny from Putin: in 2014, he condemned the annexation of Crimea. “Putin and his henchmen bear responsibility for these monstrous crimes. They killed hundreds of thousands of people in cold blood, in Chechnya, in Syria, in Georgia, in Ukraine,” was one of his last posts before his imprisonment. The current sentence of 16 years suggests that Skobov, who suffers from chronic illnesses and increasing loss of sight, will not survive imprisonment. “It’s very difficult and sad for me that I can’t give him a sentence of 16 years suggests that Skobov, who suffers from chronic illnesses and is losing his eyesight, will not survive imprisonment. ‘It is very difficult and sad for me that I will not see him again and that it will not be him who closes my eyes,’ his 91-year-old mother Natalya Lukinichna told the ISHR. For his wife Olga, it is a heavy financial burden to visit Alexander Skobov in the prison camp more than 1,000 kilometres away in the north of Syktyvkar in the Komi region (north-west Russia). The ISHR has promised to help her.

Putin’s logic: those who defend their opponents will be eliminated

From March 2021 to July 2022, Aleksei Lipzer was one of four lawyers representing opposition activist Alexei Navalny, who died on 16 February 2024, in court. On 13 October 2023, a Moscow district court ordered Lipzer and his fellow lawyers Vadim Kobtsyov and Igor Sergunin to be remanded in custody. The fourth defence lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, was abroad at the time. The lawyers were accused of ‘participation in the activities of an extremist community’ under Article 2 (282.1) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. By categorising all of Navalny’s activities as extremist and prohibited under the Foreign Agents Act, his legal counsel was also prosecuted as extremist. On 17 January 2025, Lipzer was sentenced to five years in prison and transferred to Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 1 in Vladimir in the central region of Russia.
Lipzer’s health has deteriorated since entering prison. He complains of severe pain in his throat, headaches, nosebleeds and visual disturbances. His blood pressure is over 200 and his skin is pale. In April 2025, he was transferred to the prison hospital, but it does not have the medical equipment necessary for his full recovery.

Lipzer’s young family is destitute because his bank accounts have been frozen. They cannot even afford the travel costs for the visit to the prison 200 kilometres away. The ISHR is in direct contact with his family and helps them as much as it can.
Due to the ban on direct financial support from abroad, we take detours via friends in Russia’s neighbouring countries, who bring our help to Russia. Word of any support gets around, and with it the trust and hope in the ISHR grows that it can extend its help – e.g. for lawyers’ fees, travelling expenses for visits, medication, help with living expenses – to other political prisoners and their families. We ask you to support us in this endeavour.