Musician Grigory Mumrikov was finally charged

The investigation brought final charges against musician and photographer Grigory Mumrikov. His lawyer Svetlana Sidorkina spoke about this.

Mumrikovis accused of attempted hooliganism committed by a group of persons (Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code with the use of Part 3 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code), due to the fact that he allegedly participated in the preparation of a failed action dedicated to Victory Day. In the final text of the prosecution, they clarified the details of the alleged meeting between Mumrikov and another defendant in this case, artist Danila Tkachenko, as well as the acquisition of items featured in the case.

The defendant himself does not admit guilt, since his actions contain neither elements nor events of a crime.

According to investigators, Mumrikov and Tkachenko planned to release yellow and blue smoke using smoke bombs installed in air conditioners during the Victory Parade in the center of Moscow.

On May 9, it became known that a criminal case had been opened against Tkachenko. In a conversation with OVD-Info, he said that searches took place at at least five addresses: his relatives, friends and relatives of his girlfriend. The activist himself left Russia before May 9. Hesaid that no one except him knew about the impending action, and also that the action was stopped by FSB officers, so it did not take place.

Mumrikov was detained on the evening of May 10, when he was driving home from work. Friends traveling with him in the car, Zinchenko’s wife, said that six men in civilian clothes pulled the photographer out of the car, hit him in the stomach a couple of times and laid him face down on the ground, holding a gun to his head. Later the police arrived and took Mumrikov and the Zinchenko spouses to the police department.

On May 12, the Basmanny District Court sentenced Mumrikov to 10 days of arrest, finding him guilty of petty hooliganism (Article 20.1 of the Administrative Code). After serving his sentence, the artist was taken for interrogation and made a suspect in a criminal case of hooliganism. Mumrikov spent 10 days in a temporary detention facility, after which he was sent to a pre-trial detention center and charged.

On June 30, in the Tverskoy court, during a hearing on extending the preventive measure, Mumrikov said that he respected the May 9 holiday and called Tkachenko a scumbag.

“I ask, I pray so many times already, on the 24th, at the trial, even the prosecutor said that she objects to the arrest, because she looked and realized that this is complete absurdity. But the judge decided in her own way, for an unknown reason, maybe it’s internal intrigue, I don’t know, but why keep an innocent person in prison?!” - noted Mumrikov.

21:58 Lawyer Svetlana Sidorkina told OVD-Info that in the final version of the text of the indictment, the roles of the defendants were assigned for the first time. According to investigators, Mumrikov was assigned the role of a photographer, and Tkachenko was responsible for preparing the failed action. In the previous version of the charge, the wording from the article of the Criminal Code was only rewritten without specifying the charges.

On July 29, OVD-Info lawyer Yulia Kuznetsova spoke about violations by security forces. The investigation brought charges against Danila Tkachenko in absentia on June 2. Kuznetsova’s lawyer herself entered the case on June 3, but the security forces did not familiarize her with the decision to bring Tkachenko as an accused. The accused himself was not provided with the right to defense when charged.

• Since February 24—the first day of the “special operation” in Ukraine—residents of Russian cities have been going out to anti-war rallies every day and talking about the tragedy online. Anti-war speeches and statements become grounds for criminal prosecution. At the moment, more than 190 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protest against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our guide .