Participants in a rally in support of someone accused of justifying terrorism were detained in St. Petersburg

In St. Petersburg, three activists were detained on Palace Square: Vladimir Vasilenko, Alexandra Shashok and Olga (surname unknown). They held a performance against the forced psychiatric examination of Alexander Merkulov, accused under the article on justification of terrorism (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). The detainees themselves reported this to OVD-Info.

During the arrest, the police informed the activists that they had violated the high alert regime. Now they are being taken to police department No. 78.

Activists dressed as doctors approached random passers-by and “under absurd pretexts, they came up with suspicions of psychopathology and persistently suggested that they go to a mental hospital for an examination. They wanted to draw attention to the absurdity and illegality of what is happening to Merkulov,” writes the telegram channel “Save Alexander Merkulov (Pezhich).”

16:04 Police officers detained two more protesters: Vyacheslav Yagutkin and Anastasia Karpina.

19:28 From the 78th police department, the following were released without reports: Vyacheslav Yagutkin, Anastasia Karpina, Olga Masina. This was reported by the channel “Detentions of St. Petersburg”. Alexandra Shashok and Vladimir Vasilenko were charged with violating the high alert regime (Article 8.6.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of St. Petersburg); they were also released from the police.

• According to investigators, from November 1, 2018 to October 31, 2019, Alexander Merkulov published posts on VKontakte under the pseudonym Aleksandr Pejic about 17-year-old anarchist Mikhail Zhlobitsky, who detonated a bomb in the building of the Arkhangelsk FSB Directorate. Experts found in the posts “signs of justification for the actions” of the anarchist. Merkulov was sent into custody at the beginning of July 2020. On October 8, the investigation decided to place Merkulov in a psychiatric clinic for examination.
• OVD-Info is aware of at least 15 cases of “justification of terrorism” initiated in the wake of the explosion at the FSB: the case of Svetlana Prokopyeva ; the case of Ivan Lyubshin ; the case ofAlexey Shibanov ; the case of Nadezhda Belova ; the case of Vyacheslav Lukichev ; the case of Lyudmila Stech ; the case of Ekaterina Muranova ; the case of Konstantin Vasilyanov ; the case of Oleg Nemtsev ; the case of Alexander Kovalenko ; the case of Galina Gorina ; the case of Pavel Zlomnov ; the case of Alexander Dovydenkov ; case of Nadezhda Romasenko; the case of Alexander Sokolov ; case of Alexander Merkulov .
• On the morning of October 31, 2018, in the FSB building in Arkhangelsk, 17-year-old local resident Mikhail Zhlobitsky detonated a bomb. Three employees were injured, the young man himself died. A few minutes before the explosion, a message about the attack appeared in the telegram open chat of “Rebel Rebel”. Law enforcement officers opened a criminal case for a terrorist attack.