Translated material
Kamchatka human rights activist tried to set fire to himself near the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Human rights activist Andrei Sargsyan tried to set fire to the building of the regional police department in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in protest against the persecution for the "discredit of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation", Alexander Kamenyuk said this on social networks.
According to Kamenyuk, the incident occurred on Saturday, May 21. Sargsyan came to the building of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs, doused himself with gasoline and was going to set fire to him, but he was stopped by the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Alexander Novikov. The incident was also reported by the Kam-24 source in law enforcement agencies. On the way to the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sargsyan recorded a video message in which he said that in May 2021 an administrative case was instituted against him about the "discrediting of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation."
The reason, according to Sargsyan, was the video that he published on March 26 after the administrative arrest of the head of the Kamchatka branch of Yabloko, Vladimir Efimov. He was accused of demonstrating Nazi symbols. "How to deal with this in this country? With the arbitrariness of the police and their stick system. Only come and burn yourself at the police building," Sargsyan said in a video message.
- In May 2021, a criminal case was opened against Vladimir Efimov under an article on discrediting the Russian Armed Forces and placed in a temporary detention center. Earlier, he was repeatedly fined under this article for publications on social networks. Efimov for a long time worked as the editor -in -chief of the TVC television company, and now he is the head of the regional branch of the Yabloko party. Until recently, he was the chairman of the Public Council for the Development of Civil Society under the Regional Government.