Dead Asylum Seeker's Mom Not Mad

The mother of a Russian asylum seeker who killed himself after being denied refuge in the Netherlands does not blame the Netherlands for her son's death. In an interview with a regional newspaper publisher, Lyudmila Doronina said any anger she might have had towards the country could not bring her son back. "But it does not help me, because I go not get Sacha returned to me," she told the interviewer. Sacha is her nickname for her son, Alexander Dolmatov. Dolmatov was an activist against Vladimir Putin's government in Russia. He fled Russia fearing arrest in 2012, entering the Netherlands in June of that year. His request for asylum was turned down six months later, and he was to be deported. His dead body was discovered on 17 January 2013 in a Rotterdam detention facility. "How can I be angry? He loved the Netherlands so much," she said. "What's done is done." Other members of the Russian opposition group, The Other Russia, protested Dolmatov's treatment by Dutch officials by throwing tomatoes at Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima. The activists were arrested and sent to jail. In April, she told the broadcaster Nos that she did not blame the country's government, but she was critical of "certain individuals who have not shown enough heart." That same month, Fred Teeven, the State Secretary for Security and Justice, held his job after narrowly defeating a vote of no confidence for his office's handling of Alexander Dolmatov's case. Russian officials also tried to politicize the death following a domestic dispute that sent Dutch police to the home of a Russian diplomat in Den Haag. Each incident has been linked to the ongoing tensions in the international relations between Russia and the Netherlands.