Seeking attention for Seredenko

On April 5, a protest took place in front of the Public Prosecutor’s Office building in support of Sergei Seredenko, who was detained in early March.

The protest was organized by activists of the NGO Russian School in Estonia, which is familiar to Propastop readers, led by Alisa Blintsova, Mstislav Rusakov, Sergei Tšaulin and Alexei Esakov. The photos taken show that about 20 people took part in the protest. Of note among the protesters were Oksana Post, the figurehead of actions against ending Russian-language education at Keila high school, Dmitri Kutscher, who has participated in several events with the same group, and Zoja Paljamar, an activist of the Immortal Regiment.

Although the campaign was previously promoted by several pro-Kremlin Facebook groups as well as by the Russian Embassy in Tallinn, the event received little attention.

Sputnik Media, launched in early 2021, has tried to take advantage of Seredenko’s detention to gain attention by writing stories from various different angles and sharing them on social media. Some of them have also been covered on Russian media channels, primarily on the Eadaily portal.

Seredenko’s detention has not received much coverage in the Russian media so far, although every story published refers to him as a human rights defender representing Russian-speaking Estonians.

Despite little media interest, Seredenko’s detention has been exploited for his own benefit by Miroslav Mitrofanov, a former Latvian MEP and one of the leading figures in the Latvian-Russian party, who shares a common interest with Seredenko in maintaining Russian-language education. Another Latvian political party, Ricibas, has also spoken in defense of Seredenko, in a press release expressing its conviction that it is an attempt to attract attention in order to intimidate any other ways of thinking.

Vladimir Žirinovski, the leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party, promised to organize a demonstration in support of Seredenko by the Estonian Embassy in Moscow, but to date there is no information on this event.

A few years ago, Sergei Seredenko was the joining link between actions in Estonia and Latvia to preserve Russian-language education.