Russian electronics billionaire Dmitry Alekseyev publicly defends jailed election expert Alexander Kynev, denouncing his detention conditions

Dmitry Alekseyev, president and co-owner of the retail chain DNS, wrote a Facebook post defending political scientist Alexander Kynev, who was arrested on charges of attempting to sell drugs.

”[…] I get it — the elephant in the room, the times we’re living in. But you know what? They’ve just released a series based on ‘Hard to Be a God.’ There’s not much left of the Strugatsky brothers’ work in it, but even there, persecuting scholars is portrayed as an outrageous example of medieval barbarism. Kynev is one of those scholars. A scholar who’s now sitting in an overcrowded cell with a hole in the floor for a toilet. Surely this isn’t what our traditional values are about? Or is humanism a forbidden word now, too?” Alekseyev asked.

The news outlet Agentstvo, which drew attention to Alekseyev’s post, said it was a rare instance of a prominent Russian businessman speaking out in defense of a victim of political repression.

Alexander Kynev is a well-known expert on Russian regional politics. He was arrested in a drug case on September 25. He was beaten when he was detained, and his shinbone was broken in two places. On October 26, it emerged that he had gone on a hunger strike in pretrial detention. His lawyer said Kynev shares a cell with 34 other people and that the toilet is a hole in the floor, which Kynev cannot use because his leg is in a cast.

Dmitry Alekseyev’s DNS is one of Russia’s largest retailers of electronics and home appliances. Forbes estimates Alekseyev’s net worth at $1.6 billion. Alekseyev has criticized the authorities before, including after Alexey Navalny’s death in pretrial detention.