The former coordinator of Navalny's headquarters in Volgograd was put on the international wanted list

The former coordinator of Navalny's headquarters in Volgograd, Evgeniy Kochegin, was put on the international wanted list by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a criminal case for disseminating “fake stories” about the actions of the Russian army motivated by hatred (clause “d”, part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by Kavkaz.Realii.

“The gravity of this article made it possible to put me on the international wanted list. I suspect that they even tried to send requests to Interpol; we have seen this in other cases. Through people in the administration of the Volgograd region, I know that twice already [law enforcement agencies] have sent a request for extradition to the national police of Georgia. As I understand it, they were either not given an answer or sent a refusal,” Kochegin told the publication.

The case against the activist was opened in May. Kochegin told Kavkaz.Realii that the reason for the persecution was a post on his Telegram channel: in the publication, the activist wrote that President Putin wants to seize Ukraine and install a puppet government there. The essence of the charges against him was unknown for a long time, because Kochegin’s lawyer was not allowed to familiarize himself with the case.

Later, Kochegin was arrested in absentia and put on the federal wanted list. The activist himself left Russia last year. In November 2021, a criminal case was opened against him for evading alternative service (Part 2 of Article 328 of the Criminal Code).

• 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.
• On June 9, 2021, the Moscow City Court recognized the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), the Foundation for the Protection of Citizens' Rights (FZPG) and the headquarters of Alexei Navalny as extremist organizations. An appeals court later upheld this decision. After this, supporters of the opposition politician began to leave Russia en masse.
• At the end of September 2021, the Investigative Committee announced that a case had been opened against Navalny and his associates, as well as other activists, regarding an extremist community (Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code). Later it became known that several other cases filed earlier against the politician and several key figures in his structures were added to this case. Currently, within the framework of one case, in addition to the article on the extremist community, there are also articles on the financing of extremist activities (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code), on the legalization of funds acquired by other persons through criminal means (clause “b” of Part 4 Article 174 of the Criminal Code), on the creation of a non-profit organization that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens (Part 2 of Article 239 of the Criminal Code) and on the involvement of minors in dangerous activities (paragraphs “a”, “c” of Part 2 of Article 151.2 of the Criminal Code) ). In May 2022, Navalny announced that he had been charged in the case of creating an extremist community (Part 1 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code).