Activist from the Altai Territory Viktor Rau left Russia

Barnaul activist Viktor Rau left Russia due to political persecution. SOTA reports this with reference to one of the Novosibirsk chats.

Now, according to the publication, Rau is in Georgia - he moved there with his grandson. “I migrated in a roundabout way, fearing persecution and detention, but maybe the authorities don’t care, the main thing for them is to push the opposition out of the country,” SOTA quotes the activist as saying.

At home, a criminal case was initiated against Rau under the “Dada” article on repeated violations of the rules of participation in rallies (Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code). At the end of April, security forces came to his home with a search.

Due to the activist's opposition activities, his grandson was registered with the police. Rau writes about this on his Facebook.

• In March, Viktor Rau went on a hunger strike in a special detention center to protest against his 13-day arrest due to a single picket on the day of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s arrival in Barnaul. On March 2, Rau tried to personally meet with the prime minister, but traffic police officers prevented him. Then the activist came out with posters that read, “ Frank cleared the way for Mishustin. When will you clean up the towns and villages?” them. Is it difficult for Mishustin to meet with social activist V. Rau?” After this, he was detained , charged with repeated violation of the rules of holding a rally (Part 8 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code) and sentenced to arrest.
• Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code provides for punishment for violating the procedure for holding public events if a person, at the time of initiation of the case, has several decisions that have entered into force under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on relevant violations within six months. The first person convicted under this article was activist Ildar Dadin; after his case, the Constitutional Court recommended that cases be initiated only if the actions of the alleged violator constituted a threat to society. Currently, one case under Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code - an activist from Kolomna near Moscow Vyacheslav Egorov - is being heard in court, four more cases - Viktor Rau in Barnaul, Alexander Kashevarov in Chelyabinsk (also left Russia), Evgenia Fedulova and Vadim Khairullin in Kaliningrad - are pending stages of investigation.