An FSB officer offered cooperation to the author of “Protest MSU” in exchange for a shorter sentence

An FSB officer offered the arrested author of the telegram channel “Protest MSU” Dmitry Ivanov to slander someone in exchange for a shorter sentence. Ivanov’s letter is quoted by the telegram channel “Prison Moscow State University”.

A week before the activist’s birthday , an “incredibly fashionable FSB officer” came to see him in pre-trial detention center No. 1 “Matrosskaya Tishina,” writes Ivanov. The security officer suggested “discovering some kind of criminal network in order to get a shorter sentence.” He also asked questions about where the activist had been for the last eight years and why he didn’t go to Donbass “to protest against the fascists.”

Ivanov is accused of spreading “fakes” about the Russian army based on political hatred (clause “e”, part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). The case was opened due to posts in the “Protest MSU” channel dedicated to the attack of the Russian military on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant , the losses of Russian aviation in Ukraine, attacks on Ukrainian cities, the murder of civilians, and the crimes of the Russian army in Bucha and Irpen .

• 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 200 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protest against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our guide .
• Article 207.3 (Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation) was included in the Criminal Code in March 2022 - in this way the authorities responded to anti-war speeches and statements, as well as the dissemination of information about the war that does not come from official Russian sources. The maximum penalty under this article is 15 years in prison.