• Human Rights Defenders  Ministry of Internal Affairs  Nizhny Novgorod Region

Stanislav Dmitrievsky, a human rights defender in Nizhny Novgorod, has been forced to leave his job at one of Nizhny Novgorod’s parish schools where he taught Old Church Slavonic. This happened as a result of a campaign of intimidation against staff of the diocesan administration in Nizhny Novgorod and the headteacher and staff at the school.

A letter about the ‘danger’ the teacher presented to society was sent to the Diocesan Administration at the end of the summer this year, following which ‘preventive talks’ were held with teachers at the Sunday school. These talks were carried out either by FSB officers or by the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Main Directorate for Combating Extremism. The teachers were required to tell about the content of Dmitrievsky’s lessons and were promised ‘big problems’ if he continued to work there. 

As a result, Stanislav Dmitrievsky’s employment contract was not extended. [Read more]