Natalia Grigoryevna Sharina

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Natalia Grigoryevna Sharina

Natalja Grigorjewna Scharina ( Russian Наталья Григорьевна Шарина , English transcription Natalya Sharina ; born July 13, 1957 ) was the director of the State Library for Ukrainian Literature in Moscow . She has been under house arrest since October 2015 . There were numerous protests in Russia and abroad against her arrest .

Professional development

Natalja Scharina studied at the Faculty of Linguistics of the Far Eastern State University in Vladivostok until 1981. After completing her studies, she initially worked as a librarian. In 1986 she went to Moscow. There she was later responsible for libraries in the cultural administration.

In 2007 she became the director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature , the only library of its kind in Russia, with over 60,000 media units, mainly in Ukrainian . Her predecessor had previously been dismissed by the city administration for strengthening Ukrainian nationalism. Natalja Scharina did not speak the Ukrainian language at the time.

In 2010 she was charged in a Moscow court for the first time after a library search of "disseminating extremist literature". The proceedings were discontinued in 2013.

arrest

On October 28, 2015, the library was raided by OMON police, armed with machine guns and masked . Books, magazines and other media were confiscated, Natalja Scharina was arrested and her apartment was searched. She was placed under house arrest on October 30th. This was extended in August 2016.

Natalja Scharina is being investigated on suspicion of inciting national hatred under Part 2, Article 282 of the Criminal Code. On November 3, 2016, the criminal hearing began in a Moscow court. She is accused of having books by the Ukrainian nationalist Dmytro Korchynskyj in the library. However, the books in question do not bear a library stamp or a library seal. According to witnesses, they were brought into the library by the raiding units. In addition, she is now also accused of embezzlement of 2.2 million rubles. Scharina's lawyer sees the process as politically motivated.

In the summer of 2017, she was sentenced to four years in prison for extremism and embezzlement , and on April 24, 2018, the verdict was upheld by the Moscow City Court.

Reactions

There were numerous protests in Russia and abroad.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry protested after Sharina's arrest. The ministry said that the investigation into Sharina "is not the first attempt by the Kremlin to label everything Ukrainian as Russophobic and extremist ". The German Federal Government noted the arrest with concern. The German Library Association and Amnesty International also protested .

The Russian PEN center announced a statement with a protest against the arrest, signed by famous writers Svetlana Alexievich , Alexander Gelman, Sergei Ponomarenko , Lev Rubinstein , rock musician Boris Grebenchtschikow and other authors. The human rights organization Memorial protested and described Natalja Scharina as a political prisoner , as did the Russian Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners . Human rights activists such as the chairman of the Moscow Helsinki group Lyudmila Alexejewa , Lev Ponomarjow and Svetlana Gannushkina also petitioned Russian President Vladimir Putin to release the political prisoner.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b 'We Are Worried About The Books': Kremlin Targets Moscow's Ukrainian Library in International Business Times, February 10, 2016; accessed on November 16, 2016
  2. ↑ Question of the day: Are Russians no longer allowed to read Ukrainian literature? Deutschlandradio from October 30, 2015; accessed on November 16, 2016
  3. ^ Book War in Moscow Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 30, 2015
  4. ↑ Director of the Ukrainian library in Moscow arrested , on the website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 29, 2015; accessed on November 16, 2016
  5. ↑ a b Case referred back on Amnesty International's website , August 25, 2016; accessed on November 14, 2016
  6. ^ A b Measures against the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow: IFLA statement on the website of the German Library Association of November 16, 2015; accessed on November 16, 2016
  7. ^ Investigators search "Ukrainische Bibliothek" in Moscow on Heise.de from October 29, 2015; accessed on November 16, 2016
  8. ↑ Moscow: Ukrainian library director in court on BBC -Ukraine from November 3, 2016; accessed on November 16, 2016 (Ukrainian)
  9. ^ Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow: The judgment was declared lawful on radiosvoboda.org on April 24, 2018; accessed on July 22, 2019 (Ukrainian)
  10. ↑ Natalia Sharina: Russian police arrest Ukrainian library director for "inciting ethnic hatred," on Independent dated October 29, 2015; accessed on November 16, 2016
  11. ↑ Printed matter 18/9609 German Bundestag , September 9, 2016 (pdf)
  12. ↑ Вставшие на защиту директора Библиотеки украинской литературы , Novaya Gazeta , October 30, 2015
  13. ↑ Political prisoners in Moscow deny allegations in SvitUA of November 2, 2016; accessed on November 16, 2016 (Ukrainian)
  14. ↑ Наталья Шарина on Politzeki.ru - Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners , from April 6, 2016; accessed on November 16, 2016 (Russian)
  15. ↑ The case of Natalia Sharina. We demand Bastrykin's resignation. on change.org; accessed on November 16, 2016 (Ukrainian)
personal data
SURNAME Sharina, Natalia Grigoryevna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Шарина, Наталья Григорьевна (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian librarian
DATE OF BIRTH July 13, 1957