News digest for September 20

Criminal and administrative cases due to the elections, refusal to approve a protest for communists and fines for observers. We talk about the main things for September 20th.

• The Moscow City Hall did not approve the protest actions of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which were planned for September 20, 21 and 25. The communists were going to rally against the results of electronic voting in the State Duma elections.
• RusNews journalist Igor Kuznetsov was placed in a pre-trial detention center in Tomsk on charges of inciting mass riots. He was detained on September 19 - the reason for the case was probably Kuznetsov’s subscription to the telegram channel “What-to-Delat!”, which allegedly discussed the upcoming mass unrest during the voting.
• Muscovite Viktor Zhiganov was detained in the case of calls for the overthrow of the government. The day before, a search was carried out at his home, after which the man was taken to a temporary detention center.
• Crimean Tatar Asan Akhtemov’s charges were tightened by replacing the first part of the article on sabotage with the second (Part 2 of Article 281 of the Criminal Code - sabotage committed by a group of persons). The man is also charged with illegal possession of explosives. According to investigators, he and his accomplices were allegedly planning to blow up a gas pipeline in Crimea.
• Jehovah's Witness from Sochi Tatyana Velizhanina has had her stay in a pre-trial detention center extended . The believer is accused of involvement in the activities of an extremist organization. She contracted Covid in the pre-trial detention center.
• A defendant in the Simferopol Hizb ut-Tahrir case, Emil Dzhemadenov, who was sentenced to eleven and a half years in prison, was put on the occupational register. Colonial staff believe that he has “a penchant for extremist ideology, a tendency to attack employees, and a tendency to violate internal regulations.”
• Crimean Tatar Rustem Murasov, who is in custody on charges of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, is not receiving proper medical care in a pre-trial detention center. He has a serious chronic illness, but he is not given the necessary medications.
• The investigation changed the preventive measure for Nizhny Novgorod activist Mikhail Iosilevich: he was given a written undertaking not to leave the place instead of a ban on certain actions. The man is charged with collaborating with an “undesirable organization.”
• Trials of those detained during the voting period took place in Moscow, Krasnodar, St. Petersburg and Irkutsk. Activist from Siberia Ksenia Moskaleva was fined 15 thousand rubles under the article on election campaigning on the day of silence because of a single picket. Observer Benes Ayo was also fined a thousand rubles for conducting a survey near one of the polling stations in the Moscow district of Sviblovo. A journalist from St. Petersburg, Alexander Kalinin, was arrested for three days on charges of petty hooliganism. The case of Denis Nochevka, an observer from Krasnodar, who was removed from the polling station after being dragged along the floor, was returned for revision.