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Russian Rights Defender Valeriy Borshchyov, Architect of Detention Oversight Law, Dies

He authored the law that enabled independent monitoring of detention facilities.

Overview

  • Eva Merkacheva of the presidential human-rights council announced his death on Telegram after a prolonged illness.
  • She said he spent the past year bedridden and chose to remain at home, where his room was set up like a hospice.
  • He was a former Mossovet member and served in the State Duma’s first two convocations with the Yabloko faction.
  • He later co-chaired the Moscow Helsinki Group and had been active in human-rights work since the late 1970s.
  • He publicly criticized Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and continued trying to help people despite his declining health.