News digest for July 9

Fines for “justifying terrorism”, interrogation of FBK donors and charges in the case of blocking roads for protests in support of Navalny on February 2. The main news for July 9 is in the OVD-Info digest.

• A court in Bryansk fined Eduard Kislov, a defendant in the “palace case,” who was detained during the action on January 23, eight thousand rubles. He was found guilty under the article of violence against a government official. At the same time, Kislov himself claimed that he did not participate in the rally.
• Maria Chugunova, a participant in the rally for the freedom of Alexei Navalny on February 2, was charged under the article of blocking roads by a group of people by prior conspiracy. According to the case file, the girl blocked the roads on Petrovka and Bolshaya Dmitrovka in Moscow during the rally.
• A resident of the Moscow region, Oleg Makurin, was sentenced to a fine of 300 thousand rubles for a post about an attack on the FSB. The man was found guilty under the article on justifying terrorism, since in the publication he suggested thinking about the reasons for what happened.
• A criminal case was opened against the former coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters in Murmansk, Violetta Grudina, under an article on violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules, allegedly due to non-compliance with self-isolation. The activist planned to participate in the elections to the city council.
• Interrogations continue in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the fraud case brought against Alexei Navalny. Employees of the Investigative Committee call FBK donors as witnesses in the case.
• The court refused to change the preventive measure for the defendants in the second Simferopol Hizb-ut-Tahrir case. Remzi Bekirov, Riza Izetov, Farkhod Bazarov, Raim Aivazov and Shaban Umerov will remain in custody at least until mid-September. Another defendant in this case, Servet Gaziev, suffered a mini-stroke while in a pre-trial detention center. They refused to hospitalize him.
• Security forces came to search Jehovah's Witnesses from the Tver region. A criminal case has been opened against two believers, Alexander Starikov and Sergei Naumenko, under the article on organizing the activities of an extremist organization.
• The ECHR awarded compensation to the defendant in the ABTO case, Ivan Astashin, due to violation of conditions of detention in the colony. The correctional facility where the prisoner was serving his sentence was too far from his region of residence. Because of this, it was difficult for Astashin's relatives to visit him.
• The court ordered the Kirov mayor's office to coordinate a picket in support of political prisoners. Previously, the city administration refused to hold the event, citing coronavirus restrictions.
• The Ministry of Justice excluded the Ingush social development fund Genesis from the register of “foreign agents”. After this, the organization resumed work.