Pyotr Verzilov was charged in the Canadian passport case

participant Pussy Riot and Mediazona publisher Pyotr Verzilov was charged under Article 330.2 of the Criminal Code (failure to comply with the obligation to submit a notification of foreign citizenship). Verzilov himself reported this to Mediazona, who was given a written undertaking not to leave.

After interrogation at the Investigative Committee, Verzilov was taken to a new search at the Moscow registration address of the publisher of Mediazona. Verzilov’s mother, who is not in Moscow now, lives in this apartment.

As stated in the decision to charge him as a defendant (the document was provided by the human rights group Agora), in December 2014 Verzilov received Canadian citizenship and did not inform the Russian authorities about this. Over the next five years, Medizona's publisher also failed to do so, the document says.

The criminal case against a Pussy Riot member became known the day before, on July 6. The summons for interrogation was signed by the investigator for particularly important cases of the Investigative Committee, Major General Rustam Gabdulin, who was in charge of the “Moscow” and “Bolotnaya” cases.

The interrogation was conducted by the same investigator who authorized a search of Verzilov’s house on June 21 under Articles 212 and 318 of the Criminal Code (mass riots and use of violence against a government official), initiated after a protest in July 2019 due to the exclusion of opposition candidates from the Moscow City Duma elections .

The publisher of Mediazona was interrogated for 13 hours regarding these cases. Investigative Committee officers told him that he was an “organizer of mass riots,” although Verzilov was in Estonia on the day of the rally. member The Pussy Riot was released as a witness. As he was leaving the department, he was attacked by a provocateur, and Verzilov was detained again. The court arrested him for 15 days under the article of petty hooliganism.

Peter Verzilov’s father lived in Canada, and the publisher of Mediazona himself studied at school there, after which he received Canadian citizenship.

Updated at 3:35 p.m. Added information about the search.