October 19, 2012, 18:23 Society

Blogger fled from Karelia to Estonia

Estonia granted political asylum to blogger Maxim Efimov

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Maxim Efimov from Petrozavodsk became a political refugee: the corresponding status and residence permit were given to him by the Estonian authorities. The blogger himself, who fled Russia, still claims that he suffered for his anti-clerical position.

Estonia has granted political asylum to blogger and head of the Youth Human Rights Group of Karelia Maxim Efimov, accused in Russia of inciting social hatred against representatives of the Karelian Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church . As Efimov himself told Gazeta.Ru, he applied for political asylum in May of this year. The blogger, according to him, sent a corresponding petition to the international protection department of the Estonian Police and Border Guard Department. “There was an interview in June, and at the end of September the officials made a decision,” Efimov noted.

In the petition, the blogger notes, he outlined the reasons why he was being persecuted in Russia and attached the text of the article “Karelia is tired of priests,” which became the reason for initiating a criminal case against him.

The main motive for leaving abroad, according to Efimov, was “this violation of the right to freedom of speech and expression of one’s opinions and beliefs, for which they are trying to punish me and which they are forcing me to renounce, declaring me a criminal and a madman.” Approximately the same wording was contained in the petition that Efimov sent to the Estonian authorities. Efimov also mentioned his human rights and journalistic activities.

Estonian officials, the blogger says, read the material that the Russian authorities did not like, “made inquiries” about the level of freedoms in Russia and made a decision that was positive for Efimov. “Many people were shocked by my story: a search, two attempts to put me in a mental hospital, extortion of 300 thousand rubles, a wanted notice, and a slanderous campaign in the Karelian media,” says the blogger.

Efimov was informed that his application had been granted and he had been granted a residence permit for three years only in October.

Foreign scientists and human rights activists, as well as “Soviet dissidents,” Efimov emphasizes, spoke out for the disgraced blogger to receive permission to live in Estonia. The petition was, in particular, supported by the human rights association Agora, the Human Rights Movement, the Estonian Institute of Human Rights, the Swedish organization Civil Rights Defenders, the American Human Rights First and the Irish Front Line Defenders. “In addition, I was supported by the Polish professor of philosophy and public figure Peter Baltserovich, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Lev Ponomarev , Doctor of Philology from Russia Victoria Mochalova , Professor of Political Science from Estonia Rein Taagepera, Professor of Philosophy from the USA Russell Shafer-Landau, Doctor of Philology Irina Alekseeva from Russia, who carried out an examination of a controversial note against the priests, for which my persecution in Russia began. also spoke out in support ,” Efimov listed. The great Sergei Grigoryants , the legendary dissident and human rights activist,

The blogger has repeatedly stated that his case is political: he is convinced that he suffered for his consistent criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church and his anti-clerical position.

The criminal prosecution of Efimov in Russia began in April 2012, when he was charged with Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement to hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of the dignity of a person or group of persons on the basis of gender, race, nationality, language, origin, attitude to religion, as well as belonging to any social group, committed publicly or using the media information). In a material entitled “Karelia is tired of priests,” published on the portal of the Karelian branch of the IPG on December 31, 2011, Efimov indicated that with budget money, “which is not available for the most necessary things, churches are being built in Karelia, and the Russian Orthodox Church is receiving kindergarten premises for use , which are sorely lacking.”

At the end of July, after the court decided to put him in a psychiatric clinic for examination, Efimov left the country - and he was put on the international wanted list.

As the human rights activist himself said then, he had to emigrate due to “constant pressure from the FSB and the Investigative Committee .” First he went to Ukraine, from where he soon moved to Poland. By this time, the blogger had already announced that he would seek political asylum, but not in Poland. Later it became known that Efimov made such a request to the Estonian authorities. “In 1997, Estonia acceded to the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 New York Protocol. I received an identity card for an asylum seeker,” employees of the human rights association “Agora”, which represents Efimov’s interests, quoted him as saying at the time.