Russian prison authorities tried to recruit jailed human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov for the war in Ukraine despite his pacifist views, the Memorial human rights group said Friday.
A Moscow court sentenced Orlov to two-and-a-half years in prison in late February for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and “discrediting” the Russian military.
Memorial said the 70-year-old was transferred on Monday to a Moscow detention facility, where he was “almost immediately” offered to sign a contract with Russia’s Defense Ministry.
“Oleg Petrovich laughed and asked whether they were bothered by his age,” Memorial said in a post on the messaging app Telegram.
“They [the authorities] replied that nothing bothers them,” the rights group said, adding that Orlov then declined to sign the contract.
Orlov serves as co-chair of Memorial, which won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.
He is one of the few prominent anti-war figures who have stayed in Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, while other critics now live in exile.
Orlov was sentenced after prosecutors sought a retrial of his previous verdict and requested he be jailed.
He was fined in October for “discrediting” the army before prosecutors appealed the sentence.