Kemerovo region and Bashkortostan: investigative actions in the case of Navalny and his supporters

Navalny's supporters were searched. A new suspect in the creation of an extremist community (Part 1 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code) is the ex-coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters in Ufa, Liliya Chanysheva.

On November 9, 2021, searches and interrogations of supporters of Alexei Navalny took place in the Kemerovo region and the Republic of Bashkortostan.

Investigative actions were carried out in a criminal case against Navalny and his supporters, which was combined into one proceeding in October. According to available information, it includes previously initiated cases of money laundering (clause "b" of Part 4 of Article 174 of the Criminal Code), the creation of a non-profit organization whose activities involve inducing citizens to commit illegal actions (Part 2 of Article 239 of the Criminal Code ), on the financing of extremism (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code) and on the creation of an extremist community and participation in it (Parts 1, 2 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code).

According to OVD-Info, in Kemerovo law enforcement agencies came with searches to Philip and Rita Kalinichenko - the brother and mother of the ex-coordinator of Navalny's headquarters Stas Kalinichenko, ex-employees of the headquarters Dmitry Didenko and Elizaveta Slavinskaya, former volunteer Daria Romanchuk; in Novokuznetsk - to the activist of the "Spring" movement and technical director of "Skat.media" Fedor Reguzov and ex-candidate to the State Duma Denis Shakin.

In Ufa, searches took place at the ex-coordinator of Navalny's headquarters Liliya Chanysheva, former headquarters lawyer Fyodor Telin, former headquarters volunteers Albert Gaskarov, Alexandra Maslova, Olga Komleva and Viktor Pryadilshchikov, journalist Anastasia Denisenko, as well as activist Rustem Mulyukov. Maslova reported that they found a “forbidden version of the Bible” in her possession, but she does not know which book she is talking about, since she is an atheist.

Another former volunteer of Denis Korolev’s headquarters was not at home when they came to search him, and law enforcement officers did not enter his apartment, but the next day he was detained in the Kirovsky District Court of Ufa, where a preventive measure was chosen for Chanysheva, and was taken away for questioning at the Investigative Committee, where he refused to answer questions in the absence of a lawyer; Then he was released, summoned for questioning as a witness on November 11.

Most of the detainees were released after interrogation as witnesses. However, Liliya Chanysheva was detained as a suspect in the case of creating an extremist community (Part 1 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code). On November 10, the court remanded her in custody until January 9, 2022. According to investigators, she led a structural unit of the extremist community - the network of headquarters of Alexei Navalny. Mulyukov, who back in September appeared in a press release from the Investigative Committee as a suspect of participation in an extremist community (Part 2 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code), was interrogated on November 10, after which the investigator chose a preventive measure for him in the form of a recognizance not to leave.

In June 2021, the court recognized the structures of Alexei Navalny and his supporters - the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), the Foundation for the Defense of Citizens' Rights (FZPG) and Navalny's headquarters - as extremist organizations; in August the decision came into force. We consider this decision to be unlawful (for more details, seehere ). Soon after the ban on Navalny’s structures, a case was opened against Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov for financing the activities of an extremist organization, which we, accordingly, also consider unlawful. Navalny, Volkov and Zhdanov were also charged in a case initiated in February under Art. 239 of the Criminal Code. In September, a case under Art. 282.1 of the Criminal Code (read more about this here ).

Sources

• The Investigative Committee consolidated criminal cases against Navalny // OVD-Info. 2021. October 12.
• The police came with searches to activists in the Kemerovo region and Bashkortostan // OVD-Info. 2021. November 9.
• Ufa activist Rustem Mulyukov was given a written undertaking not to leave // ​​Kommersant-Ufa. 2021. November 10.
• The court placed in custody the ex-coordinator of Navalny’s Ufa headquarters. She was sent to a pre-trial detention center // OVD-Info. 2021. November 10.
• Another Navalny supporter in Ufa was summoned to the investigative committee as a witness // Echo of Moscow in Ufa. 2021. November 11.