The former head of Navalny's Arkhangelsk headquarters, Andrei Borovikov, was again sent to a punishment cell.

Arkhangelsk activist Andrei Borovikov, sentenced to 2.5 years in prison because of the Rammstein video, was sent to punishment cell IK-7 in the Arkhangelsk region for the second time in a row. This was reported by SOTA with reference to the activist’s wife Daria.

At the moment, it is unknown why the man was placed in a punishment cell. At the end of December, the colony administration placed Borovikov in a punishment cell because shower gel was found in his bag, which was allegedly not in the inventory of his personal belongings. Borovikov celebrated the New Year in a punishment cell.

According to the activist’s wife, Borovikov was placed in the isolation ward a day after leaving his cell. In November 2022, this measure was also applied to him. The reason, as SOTA clarifies, was that he was “absent from his sleeping place due to poor health.”

“Andrey has a cassation hearing ahead, maybe that’s why they’re trying so hard. The reasons for the imprisonment are not at all worth locking up a person for such a period. And you also need to remember why he’s in prison in the first place,” SOTA quotes Borovikov’s wife as saying.

In April 2021, Borovikov was sentenced to 2.5 years in a general regime colony - he was found guilty in the case of distributing pornography (clause “b”, part 3 of Article 242 of the Criminal Code) because of the Rammstein video for the song Pussy.

According to investigators, in 2014, Borovikov published a video on VKontakte containing “naturalistic scenes depicting sexual intercourse, with a visual demonstration of the genitals.” To collect evidence in the case, the security forces recruited one of the former volunteers of Navalny’s headquarters. He came to the meeting with Borovikov with listening devices, on which he recorded a conversation with the ex-coordinator.

In July 2021, the appellate court reduced the prison term by three months. Then the court reduced Borovikov’s term of stay in the colony by one day, recalculating the period at the request of the administration of IK-7 of the Arkhangelsk region. In August, the Arkhangelsk Regional Court refused to replace the remainder of the sentence with a non-custodial sentence.

On January 12 , SOTA reported that Borovikov was sent to a punishment cell for 13 days due to the fact that he was lying on the floor in a punishment cell during his previous imprisonment.

“Oh, idiotic. In fact, this is actually prohibited by prison rules. But no one sits for 10-15 days from morning to evening on a hard metal-wooden narrow bench. Maybe “they” think that I will be the first of these? It is clear that this is a “special” attitude towards me from the administration,” the publication quotes Borovikov as saying.

• Amnesty International recognized the persecution of Andrei Borovikov as politically motivated. Then the director of the Russian representative office of the organization, Natalya Zvyagina, noted that Borovikov’s opinion “often diverges from the position of the executive branch, and his criticism is clearly not liked by some of its representatives.”
• In 2019, Andrei Borovikov was sentenced on charges of repeated violation of the established procedure for holding an action (Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code) - he was sentenced to 400 hours of compulsory labor. A criminal case was opened after the activist’s participation in several peaceful protests against the construction of a landfill at Shies station. Amnesty International also considers this case political. Previously, Andrei Borovikov headed Navalny’s headquarters in Arkhangelsk.