French researcher Laurent Vinatier, sentenced by Russia to three years in prison in a case condemned by Paris, has been transferred to a transit penal colony, his family told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday, April 10. Vinatier is one of several Westerners jailed by Moscow during the Ukraine offensive. He was sentenced in October last year after being found guilty of violating Russia's "foreign agent" law.
Vinatier, who works for a Swiss conflict mediation NGO, was arrested last summer as tensions with France and other Western countries soared over Ukraine. According to a message from his family to AFP, Vinatier's lawyer informed them that he was transferred from Moscow to Tula – around 200 kilometers south of the capital – to a transit penal colony.
He is meant to spend 15 days of quarantine in the prison. His family does not know where he will be transferred after that. Prisoner transfers in Russia's huge penitentiary system can take weeks – with relatives often not knowing the whereabouts of a convict.
Vinatier, who speaks Russian, is a veteran researcher on Russia and post-Soviet countries. Russia has accused him of violating its "foreign agent" law – which has Stalin-era connotations and has usually been reserved for Russian nationals.
As he lost his appeal in February, Vinatier said in court that his work always tried to "present Russia's interests in international relations."
France has demanded Vinatier's release, condemning the sentence as "arbitrary," with President Emmanuel Macron repeatedly calling on Russia to free the researcher.