In Samara, a supporter of “Citizens of the USSR” was placed in a psychiatric hospital for an examination for a month

In Samara, Vyacheslav Shepelev, the former leader of the Togliatti trade union Molot and a supporter of the ideas of Citizens of the USSR, was placed in the Samara regional psychiatric hospital for 30 days. He himself informed OVD-Info about this.

In December 2020, at the request of the investigator, Shepelev was assigned a compulsory psychiatric examination. According to the activist, she is connected with three criminal cases in which he is accused.

Inciting hatred or enmity (part 1 of article 282 of the Criminal Code) is imputed to him because of the reposts. Public calls for extremist activity (part 1 of article 280 of the Criminal Code) - because of statements that the investigation considers calls for the overthrow of power. Also, because of the statement of an employee of the Center “E”, Shepelev is accused of threatening to use violence against a representative of the authorities (part 1 of article 318 of the Criminal Code): the security official claims that a follower of “Citizens of the USSR” threatened him in a personal conversation.

First, in June 2020, the court sent Shepelev to an outpatient psychiatric examination. But the doctors concluded that “under such conditions they cannot” draw a conclusion about the sanity or insanity of the accused, and recommended a hospital examination.

According to Shepelev, seven administrative and 10 criminal cases have already been opened against him. Over the past three years, the security forces have come to search the house where the Shepelev family lives four times.

• "Citizens of the USSR" is a movement uniting fighters for the restoration of the rights of citizens of the USSR. The followers of the organization believe that the Union continues to exist, and the Russian Federation is a "trading company". Some of the Citizens of the USSR participants renounce any ties with Russia as a state, for example, do not sign any documents, notify local authorities of the need to vacate their posts.