Andrei Sabinin, Mykola Semena, and fellow lawyer Emil Kurbedinov (from left to right). Crimea, July 2017. Photo via Facebook.Andrei Sabinin, a lawyer with the Agora International Human Rights Group, has an impressive record of successfully defending people in high-profile cases. His clients have ranged from Mykola Semena, a Ukrainian journalist and contributor to RFE/RL’s Krym.Realii project to Lyudmila Bogatenkova, chair of the Prikumye branch of the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers in the Stavropol region. Sabinin succeeded in getting the case against Viktor Krasnov, a blogger who was charged with insulting the feelings of religious believers, abandoned. Sabinin also managed to have an article about corruption written by ecologist Valery Brinikh removed from the Russian state’s register of extremist materials.
In short, Sabinin has seen it all. As part of oDR’s series of interviews with Russian human rights lawyers, I asked Sabinin about his work and what motivates him.
What made you decide to become a defence attorney?
