All kinds of persecution at once

Hello! May 6 marked the four-year anniversary of the clashes on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, in the wake of which a still-unclosed criminal case was opened. On May 6, 2016, people came to Bolotnaya to remember those events. Eight people were detained , two of them were kept in the police department overnight , one of them was given five days of arrest , and the other was fined 150 thousand .

Legislation

On May 13, the Duma adopted in the first reading bills that seriously tighten penalties for extremism and terrorism. Now the state can block exit from the country to anyone who received a warning from the FSB less than five years ago about the inadmissibility of actions that qualify as terrorist. It is proposed to punish extremist crimes only with imprisonment. In addition, if the bills are adopted in this form, telecom operators will be required to store data on subscribers, calls, sent messages and images for three years.

Crimea

In recent days, Crimea has been striving to break all records for the number of different types of political persecution, from detentions to criminal cases. In Simferopol on May 6, a rally in defense of the private Crimean Cossack Cadet Corps, which they want to close, was dispersed . Several people were detained, one of them was restrained by four police officers. Two participants in the rally were fined 20 thousand rubles. And in Yevpatoria, 25 Crimean Tatars were detained , fingerprinted and released. They explained this by saying that they were looking for murder suspects.

In addition, in Bakhchisarai alone, during May 12 , four people were detained on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist organization (all of them were arrested by court order ; this is at least the fourth case opened on the peninsula for membership in Hizb ut-Tahrir) and filed a case against the Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Ilmi Umerov, for stating the need to return Crimea to Ukraine. A case was also opened regarding the distortion of the anthem (under the article of inciting hatred!) due to the fact that the wrong soundtrack was played at the ceremony.

Certain “actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation” and “publications aimed at inciting interethnic and interethnic hatred” became the official basis for blocking the website “Crimea. Realities" for a day.

Detentions

This year, even the “Immortal Regiment” protest did not happen without arrests. In Cheboksary, several of its participants were detained with a portrait of Hero of Russia Yevgeny Borisov, deprived of his freedom and reward for gambling, and in Moscow, before the action , several activists of the movement “For Lada-Rus!” for posting leaflets.

On May 13, in the Krasnodar Territory, criminal investigation officers detained Alexei Navalny and employees of the Anti-Corruption Foundation as part of Operation Anaconda (no joke). They were checked for involvement in ISIS (and even this is not a joke) and were released.

In Moscow, the purge of Arbat from artists of various genres continues: this week , street clown Oleg Skrypnikov, who draws cartoons for free, was detained there twice .

In Voronezh, for unclear reasons, local activist Dmitry Vorobyovsky was detained and sent to a mental hospital : the court decided to release him , but this happened only six days after being admitted to the hospital.

Administrative prosecution

In the Moscow region of Ramenskoye, the court, having taken unprecedented security measures (the building was full of armed bailiffs who took away phones from visitors), sent blogger Yan Katelevsky under arrest for ten days for filming near the local police department. Katelevsky has already served twelve days for participating in another shooting at the same place. He was on a hunger strike in the special detention center.

But the court refused to punish the organizer of the Novosibirsk absurdist “Monstration” Artem Loskutov for “holding an event without notification,” and even issued a report to the prosecutor about violations when drawing up a report on Loskutov. Last week, the ideologist of “Monstration” was already tried for violations during the event and fined, but this, apparently, was not enough for the police, and Loskutov was detained right in court and a new report was drawn up against him.

Criminal prosecutions

Once again , the period of detention of St. Petersburg architect Sergei Akhmetov, who is accused of disrupting a policeman’s shoulder strap at a rally in support of Alexei Navalny in Moscow in July 2013, has been extended . At the same time, Akhmetov himself claims that he was neither at the gathering nor in Moscow at all at that time, and the photographs included in the case materials show a person who does not look much like him.

Sergei Mokhnatkin, serving a sentence in the Arkhangelsk region on charges of using violence against police officers at the Strategy-31 rally, was charged with disrupting the activities of a correctional colony. His lawyer claims that Mokhnatkin was severely beaten in the colony, his spine was damaged, and now they are fabricating the case to hide it.

Nizhny Novgorod anarchist Ilya Romanov, sentenced to nine years in a maximum security colony on charges of preparing a terrorist attack, was placed in a punishment cell for two weeks . Human rights activists report that this was preceded by a provocation: a colony employee handed Romanov cigarettes in order to later accuse him of violating the rules.

Ildar Dadin, convicted of “repeated violations” at peaceful protests, was kept in a pre-trial detention center for more than twenty days and was not sent to a colony.

Other types of persecution

In Makhachkala, unknown persons kidnapped Magomed Magomedov, the person responsible for public relations and media of the Salafi Tangim mosque.

In Chechnya, the house of local resident Ramzan Dzhalaldinov, who recorded a video message to Putin with a complaint against regional officials, was burned down . His family was taken to Dagestan and ordered not to appear in Chechnya again.

Independent journalist Alexander Sotnik receives threats from unknown persons. In addition, provocative posts are being spread from fake accounts in his name.

What awaits us (14.05 - 20.05)

A debate has been scheduled for May 17 in the case of Nikolai Karpyuk and Stanislav Klykh : Ukrainian citizens are accused of killing Russian military personnel in Chechnya in the mid-1990s; the defendants claim that they were not in Chechnya at that time.

On May 18, hearings begin in Sevastopol onthe first terrorism case opened in Crimea for membership in Hizb ut-Tahrir.

On the same day, an appeal against the arrest of Maxim Panfilov , the last person accused in the Bolotnaya case today, should be considered.

Thank you for your attention!

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