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The imprisoned Russian civil rights activist Oleg Orlov, 70, in October 2023

Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / dpa

Russian human rights activist Oleg Orlov, who was sentenced to several years in prison, has refused to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine instead of serving a prison sentence, according to the Memorial organization.

“This type of contract is offered to all new prisoners,” Memorial, whose co-chair Orlov was, said on the Telegram online service.

“Of course” he refused.

According to Memorial, the proposal was made to Orlov "almost immediately" after he was transferred to a detention center in northwest Moscow on March 11.

The 70-year-old jokingly asked whether his old age wouldn't be a hindrance to him going into battle.

“He was told that nothing was a hindrance,” the organization explained.

Russia has already offered numerous prisoners military contracts in exchange for their early release.

According to independent media reports, tens of thousands of them have been sent to the front since 2022, often for the riskiest missions.

Orlov had stayed in Russia to continue "the fight."

Orlov is one of the leading representatives of the Memorial organization, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

In February he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for discrediting the armed forces.

He had taken part in anti-war demonstrations and published an article in which he wrote that Russia had slipped into fascism.

In contrast to many other critics of the Kremlin, the co-chairman of the human rights organization Memorial remained in Russia to continue "the fight."

The non-governmental organization Memorial was originally founded to deal with the history of political tyranny, particularly during the period of repression under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

For years, Orlov headed Memorial's human rights department and organized prisoner exchanges as a mediator during the Chechen wars.

Memorial received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, but the organization was already banned in Russia at that time.

aka/Reuters/AFP