A case of extremism was opened against a pensioner who denies the collapse of the USSR

A court in Omsk placed 72-year-old disabled Vladimir Beskhlebny under house arrest on charges of organizing an extremist community. He denied the collapse of the USSR and was the chairman of the Omsk "executive committee of the Council of People's Deputies of the RSFSR", and the FSB officials claimed that he was preparing an "armed seizure of power", Novaya Gazeta writes . The homes of five of Beskhlebny's associates, as well as two Omsk offices of the movement, were searched.

The search order stated that, according to the Russian Federal Security Service for the Omsk region, Beskhlebny was preparing an "armed seizure of power" in the country. In the court decision, the crime in which the pensioner is suspected is formulated as "organization of an extremist community."

This is not the first criminal case against opponents of the collapse of the USSR, reminds Novaya Gazeta. So, after the Union of Slavic Forces of Rus' movement, which advocated it, was recognized as extremist last August, in the summer of 2020, cases on the creation of its “branches” were opened in the Tula and Kirov regions. In July, searches were carried out at the homes of opponents of the collapse of the USSR in the YaNAO city of Noyabrsk. In July 2019, members of the Home to the USSR movement from Nizhnevartovsk were accused of preparing for an armed seizure of buildings.