Persecution of the anti-war movement report: September 2023

Repression at the legislative level

From July 24 to August 24, Russian legislators managed not to pass a single repressive law because of the summer recess in the State Duma.

Criminal cases

During this month, we learned of 36 new defendants in «anti-war» criminal cases. Among them are former football player Evgeny Savin, Gleb Malkov, who stepped on the Russian flag at the monument to Evgeny Prigozhin, and Vladimir Vladimirov, who set fire to a mobilization tent.

Seven administrative cases and a criminal case were opened against Tamara Kryukova from Magadan under the article on justifying terrorism on the Internet (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). She was arrested for three days, and after leaving the special detention center she was detained again. Ruslan was sent to a pre-trial detention center on a criminal case of inciting hatred (Clause «a», Part 2, Article 282 of the Criminal Code) after he spent two weeks in a special detention center.

16 defendants in criminal cases were sentenced, including bloggers Ruslan Leviev and Michael Naki, who were sentenced in absentia to 11 years in prison; the editor-in-chief of the publication «New Focus» Mikhail Afanasyev to 5.5 years in prison, and priest Ioann Kurmoyarov to 3 years in prison. All of them were found guilty of spreading «fake news» about the armed forces.

Activist Natalya Filonova was also sentenced to 2 years and 10 months in prison for alleged violence against a police officer. Previously, due to Natalya’s placement in a pre-trial detention center, the guardianship authorities took her adopted son from relatives and placed him in an orphanage. A 15-year-old teenager said that other students beat him and bullied him on the initiative of the director of the institution.

This month it also became known about new cases of violations in pre-trial detention centers and colonies.

Thus, activist from the Kaliningrad region Igor Baryshnikov, sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in a «fake news» case, faces mortal danger due to illness and improper treatment by FSIN officers.

A defendant in a criminal case about «fake news» about armed forces, Kirov resident Richard Rose, has his rights limited in pre-trial detention center No. 5 in Yekaterinburg. During a search in his cell, almost all of his books and personal belongings were taken away, and he was denied telephone calls. In addition, Rose only receives letters from two recipients, and his own letters are not sent.

Vladimir Vasilenko, the defender of the defendant in the «Mayakovsky case» Artem Kamardin, has not been allowed to see his client in pre-trial detention center No. 2 in Moscow since August 23.

Those involved in anti-war cases continue to be placed in ShIZO (Punishment cell. A separate part of the FSIN institution, in which cells are located for those who have violated the regime of detention. Placement in this isolation ward is often used as a practice of putting pressure on prisoners). This month, Alexey Moskalev was placed in a punishment cell for the third time. In total he will be forced to spend at least 34 days there. Alexey Gorinov was placed in a punishment cell twice: on September 5, after FSB officers tried to find out whether Alexey had anything to do with terrorist and extremist organizations. In the letter, Gorinov spoke about the poor conditions in the punishment cell.

Among other cases of lawlessness by security forces in the context of criminal cases, we know of the following:

• On August 24, Vitaly Ermishin was beaten by a security guard at the Moscow shopping center «RIO» after he wrote with a chalk on the asphalt a part of the poem by Mayakovsky: «War is a wind of corpse stench, war is a factory for making beggars!» Later, Vitaly was detained, accused of using violence against police (Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code) and insulting them (Article 319 of the Criminal Code), and was sent under house arrest.
• On July 18, a 66-year-old resident of Voronezh had her apartment inspected and her computers were confiscated because of her daughter’s anti-war statements on Twitter.
• At the Vasileostrovsky Court in St. Petersburg, bailiffs sprayed tear gas against listeners who came to support the artist Sasha Skochilenko, who was being persecuted in a case of «fake news».

This month, 45 OVD-Info lawyers helped 66 defendants in 55 criminal «anti-war» cases in 36 cities. Our defenders also attended 1 interrogation in St. Petersburg.

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Administrative cases

According to Mediazona as of 20.09.2023

During this month, OVD-Info defenders participated in 100 administrative cases in courts and helped 31 detainees.

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Svetlana Makhnorylova, a senior from Verkhniy Tagil, was detained by force due to non-payment of fines. Last month, Makhnorylova was fined 30 thousand rubles under the article on discrediting the army and 2 thousand rubles under the article on displaying extremist symbols due to comments on VKontakte. The senior clarified that she refuses to pay them on principle, since «she has the right to an alternative opinion.»

A 70-year-old resident of Dzhankoy was fined 100 thousand rubles under the article on discrediting the Russian army (Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) due to inscriptions with «unacceptable meaning» on the gate. A surgeon, Olga Avdeeva, a mother of five children from Izhevsk, accused in a criminal case of discrediting the army was fined 30 thousand rubles because of a picket that she did not even join. A 28-year-old Crimean man was fined 30 thousand rubles because of a tattoo.

During this month, OVD-Info defenders participated in 100 administrative cases in courts and helped 31 detainees.

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Extrajudicial pressure

Security forces confiscated the car of a Petrozavodsk resident who opposed the war in Ukraine because of inscriptions that «discredited the armed forces of the Russian Federation.» It is clarified that her fellow countryman complained about the 50-year-old woman’s car. According to the channel, the car was sent to the impound lot, and the woman herself was detained.

Employees of Center «E» in Feodosia broke into the apartment of the Babichenko family, after which they forced Andrei Babichenko to apologize on camera because of pro-Ukrainian posts on social networks. At least three more people were also forced to apologize this month. We’ve discussed this practice in detail here.

Blockings and censorship

Among those blocked are the websites of the Internet radio and podcast platform Radio Sakharov, the student media resource Groza, the Ark (Kovcheg) project helping emigrants, and the website of the human rights organization Moscow Helsinki Group.

The Yekaterinburg publication Vechernie Vedomosti received two new protocols under the article on discrediting the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) due to publications about anti-war actions posted in the telegram channel before the article on discrediting came into force. Pskov Province journalist Vladimir Kapustinsky was fined 30 thousand rubles because of an anti-war statement in the «Double Bottom» program on the «Pskov Gubernii» YouTube channel.

LINKS TO OTHER OVD-INFO DATA AND REPORTS

• Wartime repression reports. August 2023, July 2023, June 2023, May 2023, April 2023, March 2023, February 2023, January 2023, December 2022, October 2022, September 2022, August 2022, July 2022, June 2022
• Report in Russian «No war. How the Russian authorities are fighting anti-war protests.»
• Report in Ukrainian «No war. How the Russian authorities are fighting anti-war protests.»
• Guide «The anti-war case.»
• The input of information in reply to the call for submissions: Challenges to freedom of opinion and expression in times of conflicts and disturbances.
• The Report on Civil Rights and Freedoms of Children
• Report «Blocking Internet resources as a tool of political censorship.»
• Project on the law on «foreign agents» — «Inoteka».
• Report «How the authorities use cameras and facial recognition against protesters.»
• Reports of OVD-Info and other organizations on the compliance of the Russian Federation with its international obligations in the field of human rights.
• Information on the human rights situation in Russia for the OSCE Moscow Mechanism.
  
  Photo: Single picket by Alexander Shakhov on Palace Square in St. Petersburg, September 15, 2023 / Photo courtesy of Alexander Shakhov