Jailed anti-Kremlin politician Ilya Yashin, addressing recent comments by Czech President Petr Pavel that Russians in the West should be monitored, said any such attempt would only play into President Vladimir Putin’s hands.
"Please don't help Putin," Yashin wrote from his prison cell in Russia in an open letter published on June 26 to the Czech leader.
Pavel came under fire earlier this month for saying in an interview with RFE/RL that while he has empathy for Russians outside the country who face hardships over Moscow's decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine -- a decision they may not support -- "when there is an ongoing war, the security measures related to Russian nationals should be stricter than in normal times.... That's simply the cost of war."
SEE ALSO: 'Cost Of War': Czech President Says Russians In West Should Be 'Monitored'Pavel’s statements were widely criticized, including by high profile anti-corruption journalist Maria Pevchikh, the chairwoman of Aleksei Navalny's International Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF International), and now by Yashin, who said they only fuel the scare tactics that state-sponsored media in Russia promotes.
“Kremlin propaganda relishes your words that all Russians living in Western countries should be taken under strict control by local intelligence agencies,” he said in the letter to Pavel, which was published on Telegram.
Yashin said the comments also undermine Pavel’s own case that European values align with Russian interests.
Yashin said his fellow cellmates reacted to Pavel’s comments, with one saying that they play into Putin’s narrative that “for the West, we are all second-class people.”
Yashin ends his letter with a plea to the Czech leader not to amplify Putin’s statements that Europe is the enemy and its leaders are Russophobes.
“Please don't help Putin convince the Russians of this and be fair to my people,” he said in the letter.
Pavel has not responded to Yashin’s letter. He later clarified his remarks, saying, "I used the word 'monitoring' by security services. Perhaps I should explain it. Monitoring doesn't mean surveillance of each individual Russian citizen. It means general monitoring of what is happening inside the community and reacting to risk factors in the behavior [of its members]."
Yashin was sentenced to prison for more than eight years for spreading “fakes” about Russian war crimes in Bucha.
The outspoken Kremlin critic was one of the few prominent opposition politicians who stayed in Russia after a wave of repression against supporters of Navalny and those who have spoken against Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine since it was launched in February 2022.
His sentence, which came into force following the rejection of his appeal on April 19, was the harshest handed down in cases against people charged with discrediting Russia's armed forces since a new law was introduced days after the invasion commenced.