Human rights activist and dissident Sergei Grigoryants has died

Dissident and human rights activist Sergei Grigoryants has died. His daughter Anna wrote about this on Facebook.

Grigoryants was 81 years old. The causes of his death are not specified.

• During Soviet times, Grigoryants was twice imprisoned on charges of "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." In 1975 he was sentenced to five years, then in 1983 to another seven years. He was released after the start of Perestroika in 1987.
• In Soviet times, Grigoryants distributed information in samizdat about human rights violations in the USSR; later published the Glasnost magazine criticizing the communist system. Subsequently, he founded and headed the human rights foundation of the same name.
• Grigoryants harshly criticized the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, he filed a complaint with The Hague demanding a trial of Putin.