Arrested in June in Moscow, the advisor to the Swiss NGO Humanitarian Dialogue was suspected of having collected information on the activities of the Russian army. He faces five years in prison.
A Frenchman before the Russian courts. Laurent Vinatier is due to appear on September 3 before the Zamoskvoretsky court in Moscow (Russia), tried for not having registered with the Russian authorities under the label “foreign agent”He faces five years in prison.
The 48-year-old researcher, who had been working as an advisor for the Eurasia and Russia program since 2014 for Humanitarian Dialogue, a mediation organization based in Geneva, was arrested on June 6, suspected of having collected information on the activities of the Russian army.
The doctor of philosophy and expert on the Chechen conflict, Russia and Central Asia pleaded guilty after his arrest, explaining that he was unaware that Russian law required him to make such a declaration.
Specialist in the post-Soviet zone
After an initial experience in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), at the French Institute of Central Asian Studies, Laurent Vinatier worked in 2001 for NATO in the office of the Secretary General’s Advisor for Central and Eastern European Affairs. He gradually specialized in the post-Soviet zone, covering political affairs and migration phenomena in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Russia. He then studied the conflict in Chechnya as part of a doctorate defended in December 2008 at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris. The researcher also worked as a consultant for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
As an independent expert, he had also developed political consulting missions (analyses and facilitation) in the interest of non-governmental organizations, private companies and States. «Humanitarian Dialogue»the organization that currently employs the researcher, is an NGO that works on “the prevention and resolution of armed conflicts in the world through mediation and diplomacy”we can read on its website.
Up to five years in prison
The Russian Investigative Committee (SKR) had indicated at the time of his arrest, without naming the French citizen, that he was being held under Part 3 of Article 330.1 of the Russian Criminal Code. This article punishes the failure to submit the documents necessary for registration in the register of “foreign agents”The agency had also suspected him of collecting information on Russian military activities, raising fears of more serious charges.
The arrest came at a time when tensions between Moscow and Paris were at their peak. Several European intelligence services had warned of the risks of Russian sabotage linked to the war in Ukraine.
Subsequently, on August 1, the West and Russia carried out the largest prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War, including American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan, who were freed by Moscow.
The agreement allowed for the release of 16 people detained in Russia and Belarus, in exchange for eight Russians imprisoned in the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia and Norway, as well as the two children of a couple of spies. Paris then called on Moscow to immediately release the other people still “arbitrarily detained in Russia”notably Laurent Vinatier.
