Alexeyev published the post on Facebook; the outlet Agentstvo spotted it. Forbes estimates his fortune at $1.6 billion.
In the appeal, the businessman compared KynEv to the "bookworm," a character from the screen adaptation of the Strugatsky brothers' "Hard to Be a God." According to him, even in the series the persecution of people of science is shown as "a flagrant manifestation of medieval savagery."
"KynEv is that very bookworm. A man of science who is now sitting in an overcrowded cell with a hole in the floor instead of a toilet. Well, surely these are not our traditional values? Or is humanism now a forbidden word too?" Alexeyev wrote.
Alexander KynEv is a specialist in Russian regional politics whose work is recognized by representatives of different parts of the political spectrum, Ekho notes. He was arrested in a case of attempted large-scale drug trafficking. According to Ekho, the charge was brought after the September elections.
During his detention, the political scientist's shin bone was broken in two places. After the hospital at Matrosskaya Tishina, he was transferred with a plastered leg to a shared cell holding 34 people. The toilet in the cell is a hole in the floor, and KynEv has no crutches or cane. He is physically unable to use the toilet, so he stopped eating, without declaring a hunger strike.
Agentstvo stresses that this is a rare case of a member of Russia's business elite publicly defending a victim of political repression. Alexeyev has spoken critically about the authorities before, for example after the death of Alexei Navalny in a pre-trial detention center.