St. Petersburg nationalists were searched

In St. Petersburg on the morning of April 20, searches were carried out at the home of the organizer of the “Russian March” Dina Garina and the organizer of the rally on March 15, 2015 Stepan Ivanov. This was reported by Rosbalt with reference to their ally Dmitry Konchaev and Garina’s lawyer Sergei Kostyuk.

According to the publication, the search of Garina began at about 6 a.m.; her phone and modem were confiscated. It is unknown what was seized during the search from Ivanov. After searches, both were detained and taken to the Investigative Committee, presumably in connection with speeches at a rally on March 15, 2015 on the Champ de Mars against political repression, for the abolition of Articles 280 and 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the ban on political investigation and the dissolution of the Center for Countering Extremism. According to Konchaev, Garina is being asked to plead guilty to inciting hatred against employees of the E center at last year’s protest.

In March, Garina was sentenced to one and a half years of suspended imprisonment on charges of inciting national hatred and calls for extremist activity. When she was detained in this case in November 2015, it was initially reported that the reason for the persecution was her calls to come to the uncoordinated “Russian March”. However, in the end, the criminal case was based on a publication on Garina’s page on the VKontakte social network. Garina admitted her guilt and agreed to have the case examined in a special manner.