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World-famous intellectuals call on Putin to release filmmaker Sentsov before 2018 Football Cup

World-famous intellectuals call on Putin to release filmmaker Sentsov before 2018 Football Cup
People all over the globe are signing the petition of French and other European & American artists, thinkers, writers, and scholars that urges sports fans and admirers of art to join the struggle for the liberation of Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian film director and political dissident unjustly jailed in Russia for 20 years.

As both the Russian presidential election and the FIFA World Cup in Russia are approaching, and Oleg’s health has deteriorated in Siberian prison, they call to “act quickly” to restore justice and return him freedom so that the forthcoming football tournament in the authoritarian country is not “spoiled” further.

Among those who signed the petition are such celebrated figures as Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius, philosophers Pascal BrucknerBruno Latour, and Slavoj Žižek, Polish ex-dissident and editor Adam Michnik, and Yale historian Timothy Snyder.

You can join them here.

Oleg Sentsov is one of at least 56 Ukrainian citizens held hostage by the Kremlin regime on fictitious charges. Please write to your national football association (or any foreign one whose team has qualified to the Cup), fans unions, politicians, and to-be sponsors calling to boycott the competition if they these people are not free by June 2018.

Below is the translation of the petition, which was published in French in Libération on 19 November 2017 and is to be delivered to the office of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Urgently release Oleg Sentsov

To everyone who loves cinema, football, and democracy… or at least one of the three

From 14 June to 15 July 2018, the big football festival will be held in Russia. It would be wrong to spoil it. But we must remind all—footballers, fans, and spectators—where they are going to set foot and direct the gaze. In Russia, the free press is not the rule but exception. Corruption is everywhere. Justice is not independent. The political play is dummy because opposition parties are harassed and cannot participate in elections. Censorship reigns in the artistic field. Opposition figures, such as Boris Nemtsov in February 2015, have been murdered. Journalists and NGOs are being harassed. Hundreds of artists, entrepreneurs, and activists are arbitrarily imprisoned—like director Kirill Serebrennikov, under house arrest.

Vladimir Putin is preparing to stand for a fourth term. He is almost certain to be elected. He will then be president until 2024. As for Oleg Sentsov, he is in prison, north of the Arctic Circle, until 2034. This Ukrainian director was arrested shortly after the annexation of Crimea by Russian special forces in March 2014. Based on fabricated evidence and false testimony, this Maidan activist was accused of fomenting terrorist actions: the destruction of Lenin’s statues or official buildings. He was tried in 2015 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Sentsov4

In September [2017], he sent a chilling letter to the Russian journalist Zoya Svetova. He writes, in particular,

“Physically, of course, nobody bothers me. But you know perfectly well that this system can punish and torture people in the most perverse ways, without resorting to brute force.”

We do not know more because the prisoner is practically cut off from the world. We have just learned that his health is deteriorating.

We must act quickly. The global cinema world, not excluding Russia’s, calls for the release of this unjustly convicted man. It is time to widen this circle.

We too are demanding his release from prison.

On the eve of the likely re-election of Vladimir Putin and the great football festival, it’s time to give him back his freedom.”

The first who signed
Sofia Andrukhovych, écrivain
Yuri Andrukhovych, écrivain
Jacques Audiard- cinéaste
Souleymane Bachir Diagne – philosophe
Vincent Baudoin – Directeur de la AMF 69
Vincent Baudriller – Directeur du théâtre Vidy-Lausanne
Friederike Behr
Jean-Philippe Béja, sinologue
Lucas Belvaux, cinéaste
David Bobée – metteur en scène
Sandie Bompar – monteuse
Bertrand Bonello, cinéaste
Pascal Bonitzer, cinéaste
Brigitte Bouchard – éditrice
Julie Bouvard – traductrice
Guillaume Brac – réalisateur
Stéphane Braunschweig, metteur en scène
Geneviève Brisac, romancière
Stéphane Brizé, cinéaste
Jean-Stéphane Bron, réalisateur
Pascal Bruckner – écrivain et philosophe
Thomas Cailley – acteur et scénariste
Emmanuel Carrère – écrivain
Jean-Claude Casanova, directeur de la revue Commentaire
Ascanio Celestini – écrivain, cinéaste et metteur en scène
Alexander Chekmenev, photographe
Sarah Chiche – écrivaine et psychanalyste
Mikhaïl Chichkine, écrivain
Olivier Cohen – éditeur
Dany Cohn Bendit
Jean-Louis Comolli – réalisateur
André Comte-Sponville – philosophe
Catherine Corsini – cinéaste
François Croquette – Ambassadeur pour les Droits de l’Homme
Florence Darel – comédienne
Marie Darrieussecq – écrivaine
Romaric Daurier – directeur du Phoenix, Scène nationale de Valenciennes
Sylvie Delassus, éditrice
Jérôme Deschamps, metteur en scène, réalisateur
Sophie Deschamps- Scénariste
Arnaud Desplechin – réalisateur
Cédric Duroux, écrivain, programmateur
Michel Eltchaninoff- philosophe
Annie Ernaux – écrivaine
Adélaïde Fabre – programmatrice culturelle
Jacques Fansten – réalisateur
Philippe Faucon – réalisateur
Dominique Fernandez, écrivain
Jérôme Ferrari – écrivain
Maurizio Ferraris, philosophe
Jean-Marc Ferry – philosophe
Maciej Fiszer- scénographe
Thierry Frémeaux, délégué général du festival de Cannes
Viviane Gajewski – Académie du cinéma européen
Benjamin Gauthier – écrivain, vice président d’Urgence Homophobie-Urgence Tchétchénie
Francis Geffard- éditeur
Fabrice Gerschel – éditeur
Denis Gheerbrant – réalisateur
Amos Gitaï, cinéaste
Raphaël Glucksmann – essayiste
Alain Gomis – réalisateur
Yann Gonzalez – réalisateur
Romain Goupil- réalisateur
Thorniké Gordadzé – politologue
Frédéric Gros- philosophe
Caroline Guiela Nguyen – metteuse en scène
Alain Guillemoles, journaliste
Arthur H. – chanteur
Joana Hadjithomas – cinéaste et artiste
Yannick Haenel – écrivain
Michel Hazanavicius – cinéaste
Hélène L’Heuillet – philosophe et psychanalyste
Axel Honneth – philosophe
Anne Husson, responsable de la programmation culturelle, Maison de l’Amérique latine
Eva Illouz- sociologue
Didier Jacob- journaliste
Antoine Jaccottet- éditeur
Paula Jacques- écrivaine et journaliste
Serhiy Jadan – écrivain
Agnès Jaoui – comédienne
Oriane Jeancourt Galignani, écrivaine et journaliste
Didier Juillard, directeur de programmation à l’Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe
Pierre Jourde- écrivain
Tomasz Kizny, photographe
Andreï Kourkov- romancier et essayiste
Alexandre Lacroix – philosophe
Bruno Latour – philosophe
Jany Lauga – responsable de la programmation culturelle des Beaux-Arts de Paris
Camille Laurens- écrivaine
Martin Legros – philosophe
Philippe Leguay/réalisateur
Delphine Le Vigan, écrivaine
Virginie Linhart –Realisatrice
Sergei Loznitsa – réalisateur
Michel Lussault, géographe
Gila Lustiger – écrivaine
Noemie Lvovsky – réalisatrice
André Markowicz- traducteur et écrivain
Tonie Marshall – cinéaste
Guillaume Mélanie – comédien, metteur en scène, président d’Urgence Homophobie-Urgence Tchétchénie
Vera Michalski Hofmann- éditrice
Adam Michnik – historien, ancien dissident
Edgar Morin – philosophe
Eric Naulleau- éditeur, essayiste et chroniqueur
Amir Nikpey- enseignant
Agnès Obadia- réalisatrice
Sven Ortoli – journaliste
Rithy Panh, cinéaste
Michel Parfenov – éditeur
Eric Pauwels, cinéaste
Jean-Claude Perrier – Ecrivain-journaliste
Nicolas Philibert – réalisateur
Aude Léa Rapin – réalisatrice
Philippe Rey, éditeur
Olivier Rolin, écrivain
Dominique Roynette, journaliste
Christophe Ruggia – cinéaste
Nicolas Saada –cinéaste
Thomas Salvador – réalisateur
Pierre Salvadori – cinéaste
Felwine Sarr- écrivain et économiste
Maren Sell- éditrice
Jacques Sémelin- historien
Léonor Serraille – cinéaste
Timothy Snyder – historien
Oleg Sosnov – commissaire d’exposition, responsable culturel à l’Institut Français
Philippe de Suremain – ancien ambassadeur
Małgorzata Szczęśniak- metteur en scène
Bertrand Tavernier – cinéaste
Chantal Thomas- écrivaine
Augustin Trapenard, journaliste culturel et critique littéraire
Vlad Troïstkyi- metteur en scène
Erik Veaux – traducteur
François Vitrani, directeur de la Maison de l’Amérique latine
Guy Walter – écrivain, directeur de la Villa Gillet et des Subsistances
Krzysztof Warlikowski- metteur en scène
Frederik Wiseman, réalisateur
Francis Wolff – philosophe
Mâkhi Xénakis, écrivain et plasticienne
Volydymyr Yermolenko- philosophe
Philippe Zard, Université Paris-Nanterre
Slavoj Zizek – philosophe

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