Oleg Petrovich Orlov, born on April 4, 1953, lived in Moscow. A biologist by training, he is a human rights defender and one of the founders of the Memorial Society. He was part of the leadership of the Memorial Human Rights Center and International Memorial, and later became co-chair of the Memorial Human Rights Defense Center.
From 2004 to 2006, he was a member of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation for the Development of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, he was a member of the Federal Political Council of the Solidarity movement. He is a recipient of the 2009 Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the 2012 Moscow Helsinki Group Award.
On February 27, 2024, he was convicted under Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”) and sentenced to two years and six months in a general-regime colony. On July 11, 2024, the appellate court upheld the sentence. He was held in custody from February 27, 2024.
On August 1, 2024, he was released as part of an international prisoner exchange.
