Brilliant researcher, activities… who is Laurent Vinatier, the French national arrested in Russia ?

Laurent Vinatier a été arrêté le 6 juin en Russie. Capture d'écran LinkedIn.

Lors d’une interview au JT le 6 juin 2024, Emmanuel Macron a confirmé qu’un chercheur français avait été arrêté en Russie. Qui est Laurent Vinatier ?

A French national was arrested this Thursday in Moscow, confirmed the Head of State during an interview with the JT. This member of the Swiss humanitarian NGO Humanitarian Dialogue and accused of having violated the Russian law on "foreign agents".

Member of an NGO

This French national "works for a Swiss non-governmental organization which was founded by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and which is diplomacy, discussion work", Emmanuel Macron confirmed Thursday evening.

He has been part of the NGO Humanitarian Dialogue since 2014. He is described by the site Eurasiapeace – who had him appear for a podcast – as a "mediator and facilitator, a practitioner of unofficial and discreet diplomacy".

This NGO "helps prevent, mitigate and resolve armed conflicts through dialogue and mediation". It is active "in most of the world conflicts with mediation projects in various regions of Africa, the Middle East, Eurasia & rsquo;Asia", she indicates on her site.

Before that, he was involved with the International Committee of the Red Cross, explains Eurasiapeace.

A brilliant researcher

He worked extensively on opposition movements in autocratic regimes at Uppsala University, in Sweden.

Laurent Vinatier holds a doctorate from the Paris Institute of Political Studies for a thesis which focuses on the conflict in Chechnya. He also taught at Bilgi University in Istanbul on the mobilization of diasporas, note Le Parisien.

"Foreign Agent"

Laurent Vinatier will soon be indicted for "non-registration as a foreign agent". This offense is punishable by five years in prison in Russia.

The state commission in charge of the investigation indicated that the researcher is suspected of having, for several years, " deliberately collected information in the field of military and military-technical activities" of the Kremlin.

However, Emmanuel Macron assures him: "In no case was it someone who worked and who works for France." Before adding that he "will receive all consular protections which is suitable in such a case".