Dmitry Alekseyev, president and co-owner of the retail chain DNS, wrote a Facebook post defending political scientist Alexander Kynev, who was arrested on charges of attempting to sell drugs.
”[…] I get it — the elephant in the room, the times we’re living in. But you know what? They’ve just released a series based on ‘Hard to Be a God.’ There’s not much left of the Strugatsky brothers’ work in it, but even there, persecuting scholars is portrayed as an outrageous example of medieval barbarism. Kynev is one of those scholars. A scholar who’s now sitting in an overcrowded cell with a hole in the floor for a toilet. Surely this isn’t what our traditional values are about? Or is humanism a forbidden word now, too?” Alekseyev asked.
The news outlet Agentstvo, which drew attention to Alekseyev’s post, said it was a rare instance of a prominent Russian businessman speaking out in defense of a victim of political repression.
Alexander Kynev is a well-known expert on Russian regional politics. He was arrested in a drug case on September 25. He was beaten when he was detained, and his shinbone was broken in two places. On October 26, it emerged that he had gone on a hunger strike in pretrial detention. His lawyer said Kynev shares a cell with 34 other people and that the toilet is a hole in the floor, which Kynev cannot use because his leg is in a cast.
Dmitry Alekseyev’s DNS is one of Russia’s largest retailers of electronics and home appliances. Forbes estimates Alekseyev’s net worth at $1.6 billion. Alekseyev has criticized the authorities before, including after Alexey Navalny’s death in pretrial detention.
Read more
- Russian elections expert Alexander Kynev stayed in the country to keep studying its politics. After criticizing the latest vote, he was arrested on drug charges.
- The Strugatsky brothers’ Soviet sci-fi classic ‘Hard to Be a God’ took aim at dictatorship. Russia’s new state-backed TV adaptation strips away the politics.
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