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Russian opposition leader applies for political asylum in Netherlands

A Russian activist who was arrested at an anti-Putin demonstration has claimed political asylum in the Netherlands.

Aleksandr Dolmatov sought sanctuary following his arrest on May 6 in Moscow, ostensibly for refusing to co-operate with police. As leader of the opposition movement Another Russia, he says he has been repeatedly threatened by the Russian secret service, the FSB.

“A senior figure in the defence company where I work told a journalist on Izvestia that they’re going to kill me,” Dolmatov told De Volkskrant, speaking from an unidentified asylum centre.

The 35-year-old has been in the Netherlands since June 9. The following day his parents’ house was searched as part of an operation targeting opposition leaders.

“The fact that the police told my parents they were looking for me gave me the impetus to ask for asylum on June 13, which is a big decision for me,” said Dolmatov.

Dolmatov works for a munitions firm that designs tactical rockets for the Russian arms industry. “In recent months I have been repeatedly threatened by people with the FSB. They ordered me to stop my work with the opposition.

“You can laugh about threats like that, but it’s not sensible in today’s Russia.”

In the 1970s a number of high-profile defectors from the Soviet Union sought political asylum in the Netherlands, including chess grandmaster Victor Korchoi and conductor Kirill Kondrashin.

Source: De Volkskrant: Russische activist wil asiel in Nederland

Photo by Sergey Kukota