To President Putin,
As we write, and as you well know, Alexey Navalny is being held in IK-6, one of the toughest penal colonies in your country. He was always kept in solitary confinement, squeezed between the concrete walls of a cell the size of a kennel, with no ventilation. Family visits and phone calls are prohibited, his rights to speak to a lawyer have been cancelled. Although he has a fever, he is forced to stand all day.
We add our voices to those of the 600 Russian doctors calling for immediate independent medical attention for him. Another 100 Russian lawyers and 100 regional councilors are demanding that Navalny’s torture stop and, again, that he be provided with medical assistance.
Navalny is serving prison sentences on charges that could never have been brought under any independent legal system. We subscribe to the call of the German government, the authorities of the United States and the European Union asking for his immediate release. It is in his power to do so.
Michael Abramowitz (President of Freedom House)
JJ Abrams (director, composer)
Pamela Adlon (actress)
Paige Alexander (CEO del Carter Center)
Svetlana Alexievich (journalist, writer, Nobel laureate)
Anne Applebaum (journalist, writer)
Margaret Atwood (scrittrice)
Mikhail Baryshnikov (dancer, choreographer)
Gina Bellman (actress)
François Berléand (attor)
Ingrid Betancourt (politician, activist, writer)
François Bizot (anthropologist)
William Boyd (writer)
John Burnham Schwartz (writer, screenwriter)
Ken Burns (records)
Carole Cadwalladr (journalist, writer)
Alastair Campbell (journalist, writer)
Éric Cantona (actor, former professional footballer)
Elizabeth Carling (actress, singer)
Emmanuel Carrère (writer, director)
Jung Chang (scrittrice)
Enzo Cilenti (actor)
Christopher Clark (historian)
JM Coetzee (writer, Nobel Prize)
Costa-Gavras (director)
Benedict Cumberbatch (attore)
Alan Cumming (actor)
Charles Cumming (scrittore)
Emma Cunniffe (actress)
Rachel Cusk (scrittrice)
Richard Dawkins (biologist, writer)
David Duchovny (actor, writer, singer)
Pasquale Esposito (actor, singer, director)
Sir Richard Evans (storico)
Sebastian Faulks (writer)
Niall Ferguson (historian)
Orlando Figes (historian)
Kate Fleetwood (attrice)
Jonathan Franzen (writer)
Michael Frayn (writer)
Niel Gaiman (writer)
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (historian, editor, filmmaker)
Jamie Glover (attore)
Linda Goldstein Knowlton (director, producer)
Vesna Goldsworthy (poet, writer)
Philip Gourevitch (journalist, writer)
Roy Greenslade (journalist, writer)
Sienna Guillory (attrice)
Nedim Gursel (scrittore)
Matt Haig (journalist, writer)
David Hare (director, writer)
Irina Higgins (neuroscientist)
Stephen Hopkins (regista)
Sharon Horgan (actress, writer, director)
Anthony Horowitz (scrittore)
Rebecca Johnson (actress)
Erling Kagge (writer, explorer)
Bentley Kalu (actor)
Daniel Kehlmann (scrittore)
Etgar Keret (writer)
Jemima Khan (UNICEF Ambassador)
David Lavin (entrepreneur)
Jude Law (actor)
Kathy Lette (writer)
Marc Levy (writer)
Dixie Linder (Producer)
Giorgio Marchesi (actor)
Agnès Martin-Lugand (writer)
Mariana Martins (entrepreneur)
Natascha McElhone (actress)
Ian McEwan (writer)
Catherine Merridale (storica)
Claire Messud (writer)
Tim Minchin (actor, writer, musician)
Herta Müller (writer, Nobel Prize)
Charlie Murphy (attrice)
Péter Nádas (writer)
Azar Nafisi (writer, professor)
Sylvia Nasar (journalist)
Bill Nighy (attore)
Amélie Nothomb (writer)
Trevor Nunn (stage director)
Tracy Ann Oberman (actress, playwright)
George Packer (journalist, writer)
Orhan Pamuk (writer, Nobel Prize)
Daniele Pecci (actor, film director)
Maria Popova (writer, poet)
Ellendea Proffer Teasley (writer, translator, editor)
Philip Pullman (writer)
Charlotte Randall (writer)
Dame Vanessa Redgrave (actress, activist)
David Remnick (journalist, writer, editor)
Jean Reno (actor)
Daniel Roher (Oscar Award-winning documentary filmmaker)
JK Rowling (scrittrice)
Arundathi Roy (writer)
Salman Rushdie (writer)
Alicia Sams (Producer)
Nitin Sawhney (composer, producer)
Simon Schama (historian)
Kristin Scott Thomas (attrice)
Simon Sebag-Montefiore (writer, historian)
Zaab Sethna (uomo d’affari)
Claudia Silver (actress, screenwriter)
Peter Singer (writer, activist)
Ali Smith (writer)
Timothy Snyder (storico)
Art Spiegelman (cartoonist, editor)
Samantha Spiro (actress)
Juliet Stevenson (attrice)
Tom Stoppard (playwright)
Alexia Stresi (writer)
Arch Tait (translator, editor)
Paul Theroux (scrittore)
Olga Tokarczuk (scrittrice, Premio Nobel Prize)
Katherine Tozer (scrittrice)
Mark Umbers (attore)
Álvaro Vargas Llosa (writer, political commentator)
Mario Vargas Llosa (writer, Nobel Prize)
Indira Varma (actress)
Marina Warner (writer, historian)
Dominic West (attore)
Olivia Williams (actress)
Rowan Williams (former Archbishop of Canterbury, poet, philosopher, peace negotiator)
Simon Winchester (journalist, writer)
Susannah Wise (actress)
James Wood (writer)
Lawrence Wright (journalist, writer)
Thom Yorke (singer, composer)
Assad Zaman (actor)
Elsa Zylberstein (attrice)
Translation by Anna Bissanti
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