Putin Critic Receives Political Asylum In The Netherlands

Ronald Airapetyan, an opposition activist who has been detained several times in recent months for publicly demanding the resignation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has obtained political asylum in the Netherlands.

Airapetyan, a member of the opposition Yabloko party from Russia's southwestern Stavropol Krai region, told RFE/RL on April 27 that he had to leave Russia in December, several weeks after unknown individuals forced him into a car in the city of Sochi and took him to a forest, where he says they threatened to kill him if he didn't stop his political activities.

He says he bought a ticket the next day to fly to Mexico via Amsterdam. He never boarded the connecting flight and immediately applied for political asylum.

Airapetyan said the Dutch government saved him from the "grasp" of Russia's Federal Security Service, adding that he does not plan to return to Russia.

The chairwoman of the Moscow-based Civil Assistance right group, Svetlana Gannushkina, supported the 22-year-old activist's application for political asylum, saying that it would be dangerous for him to return to Russia.

In January, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg officially registered Airapetyan's complaint against Russian police for his detention during a protest action in Sochi in November 2020, after which he was sentenced to four days in jail on a charge of violating the law on holding public events.