Pushkin could not do anything. When, behind the bars of the cage of the small Zamoskvoretsky district court in Moscow, Laurent Vinatier, on Monday, October 14, concluded his defense by quoting the great Russian poet, the judge looked him straight in the eye. De facto hostage in the confrontation between the Kremlin and Paris, the 48-year-old Frenchman, a specialist in the post-Soviet space, detained in Moscow on June 6 and prosecuted since then for not having registered as“foreign agent”admitted his guilt “full and complete.” But, standing tall, with his blue shirt and his look that was both severe and charming, this father explained “I fell in love with Russia twenty years ago.”
Married to a Russian woman, he travels constantly to Moscow and St. Petersburg to organize “parallel diplomacy” led by the Swiss organization Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), his employer for eight years. With slightly trembling hands, he asked the judge for a “lenient and fair verdict.” Then, when the prosecutor had just requested three years and three months in prison against him, Laurent Vinatier suddenly abandoned the few A4 sheets where he had scribbled his defense sentences. And, from memory, he quoted Pushkin before the visibly disconcerted judge: “If life deceives you… Be resilient on a day of pain. »
An hour later, Judge Natalia Tcheprassova was back in the courtroom. With dry eyes, immersed in the three pages of her sentence, she read her verdict at full speed: three years in prison for Laurent Vinatier. That is three months less than what the prosecutor requested. But far from what the Frenchman’s lawyers expected: they asked for a simple fine for this relatively serious crime.
“foreign agent”
The researcher, who has written three books and signed multiple academic articles on Russia, admitted not having registered as“foreign agent”label previously used against Russian critics of the Kremlin. But the scope of application has just been expanded to certain foreigners. Laurent Vinatier did not know. The Russian security services (FSB), for their part, stated that the Frenchman had “He collected military and technical information that could be used by foreign intelligence services against Russian security”. An accusation that borders on espionage.
“Like other Westerners detained in Russia, Laurent Vinatier could become involved in the prisoner exchange games between Moscow and the West”assures a European source close to the matter. the 1Ahem In August, Russia and the West exchanged twenty-six of their nationals, the largest prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War. Against an agent convicted of murder in Germany and against a pair of spies detained in Slovenia, the West notably obtained the release of Americans, including Evan Gershkovich, correspondent for Wall Street Journal in Moscow. Since then, coincidentally or not, other Westerners have been arrested or sentenced in Russia. Among them: Stephen James Hubbard, 72-year-old American, sentenced on October 7 to six years and ten months in prison for “mercenarism” for the benefit of Ukraine; o Harry Johannes van Wurden, a Dutchman who faces ten years in prison after being arrested for ” violence “ against a police officer.
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