Astrakhan activist Igor Stenin left Russia

The leader of the Russian Astrakhan organization, Igor Stenin, left Russia. His wife Elena reports this on her Facebook page.

“Astrakhan activist Igor Stenin left Russia with his wife and son, fearing pressure on loved ones from the security forces,” wrote Elena Stenina-Grebenyuk.

On December 21, 2017, the Astrakhan Regional Court upheld the verdict against Stenin. In May, Stenin’s case was dismissed due to the lack of evidence of a crime, however, the Prosecutor General’s Office filed a complaint against this decision, and the case was returned for review to the regional court.

On May 16, 2016, the Soviet court of Astrakhan sentenced the activist to two years in prison in a colony settlement for public calls for extremist activities (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code). The reason for the case was the repost on Vkontakte of an article on the topic of the war in Ukraine. According to the defense, Stenin was convicted for another user’s comment under his post. Stenin did not admit his guilt.

The activist himself told the Caucasian Knot that the latest court decision in his case, according to which he, in fact, must return to the colony, repeats all the violations committed by the court of first instance:

We received a ruling from the appellate court - it actually repeated all the violations that led to the reversal of the verdict by the presidium of the regional court, it ignored the opinion of the judges of the Supreme Court. We are already preparing a cassation appeal. To date, none of my family members have received an invitation to appear at the regional FSIN to receive a referral to FSIN institutions to continue serving their sentence.

The interview with Igor Stenin, which he gave to OVD-Info after his release, can be read here.