News digest for June 29

Searches of Project journalists, arrest in absentia of the ex-director of FBK, recognition of the Freedom of Information Society as an undesirable organization and victories of lawyers from OVD-Info - read the main news for June 29 in our digest.

• The police conducted searches of the editor-in-chief of “Project” Roman Badanin, his deputy Mikhail Rubin and correspondent Maria Zholobova. Investigative measures took place as part of a criminal libel case. Journalists associate the searches with the release of an investigation into the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev.
• The former director of FBK, Ivan Zhdanov, was arrested in absentia by the court due to non-payment of 29 million rubles to the Moscow Schoolchild food processing plant. The oppositionist was also put on the international wanted list.
• Security forces came with searches to Elena Rodvikova, a single mother from Syktyvkar. The woman is accused of calling for extremism and terrorism on the Internet due to comments on VKontakte. In a similar case, the article was reclassified to Murmansk resident Oleg Kovalev. Initially, the man was accused of calling for extremism due to a publication on social networks, but now he is charged with calling for terrorism.
• The Supreme Court upheld the sentence of Bashkir opposition leader Airat Dilmukhametov. In 2020, the court found him guilty of calling for separatism and extremism, as well as financing the activities of an extremist organization, and sentenced him to nine years in a maximum security colony.
• Activist from Perm Ilham Veliyev was charged under the article of justifying terrorism. A criminal case was opened against him because of a post on VKontakte.
• “These non-humans threatened not only me, but also my mother”: the former coordinator of Navalny’s Chelyabinsk headquarters, Artem Yaumbaev, a suspect in the “palace case,” left Russia for the United States due to pressure from the security forces. They threatened the oppositionist with new criminal cases if he did not leave the country.
• Pussy Riot member Anna Kuzminykh, who is serving an arrest in one of Moscow’s special detention centers, is not given painkillers, despite her health problems. She plans to go on a hunger strike in protest.
• The Society for Freedom of Information, registered in the Czech Republic, was recognized as an undesirable organization. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the society “represents a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation.”
• In Murmansk, police detained volunteers from the election headquarters of Violetta Grudina, the former head of the Murmansk headquarters of Alexei Navalny. They hung posters as part of the campaign for city council elections.
• Lawyer from OVD-Info Ekaterina Ryzhova achieved the cancellation of decisions on six administrative cases brought against participants of the January 31 rally in Moscow. Most of the cases were sent for review, and one was dismissed due to lack of proof of guilt.