Human rights activist Vladimir Shaklein died

In Yekaterinburg, one of the oldest Russian human rights activists, the head of the Interregional Center for Human Rights, Vladimir Andreevich Shaklein, died on Friday. In August, he celebrated his 75th anniversary. On December 24, Shaklein suffered a stroke and fell into a coma.

A specialty engineer, Shaklein devoted more than half a century to human rights activities. In the 60-70s, he distributed samizdat, was arrested for "anti-Soviet activities", then lived in Estonia for a long time. In the late 80s, Shaklein was an active participant in the democratic movement. Since the mid-90s, he has become one of the leading specialists in the country for the protection of the rights of prisoners.

As a member of the Public Supervisory Commission of the Sverdlovsk Region, Shaklein constantly traveled to colonies and prisons. Before his death, he visited colony No. 13 in Nizhny Tagil, which contains political prisoner Igor Matveev, and before that he went on long business trips to the Far East and Moscow for human rights affairs.