Ex-coordinators of Navalny's headquarters in Arkhangelsk were sentenced to a year of restriction of freedom

Former coordinators of Navalny's headquarters in Arkhangelsk, Yegor Butakov and Elizaveta Bychkova, were sentenced to a year of restricted freedom. This is reported by SOTA.

The Lomonosovsky District Court of Arkhangelsk sentenced them under the article on participation in the activities of a non-profit organization that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens (Part 3 of Article 239 of the Criminal Code). During the year, Butakov and Bychkova will have to report to the supervisory authority twice a month. They are also not allowed to change their place of residence or leave the city.

At the same time, Butakov was credited with the period of prohibition of certain actions under which he was sentenced, in the format of two days.

A mitigating circumstance, as the investigator noted, was that the ex-coordinators of the Arkhangelsk headquarters testified against other members of the organization.

Previously, Butakov and Bychkova, thanks to their cooperation with the investigation, had their charges softened and their prosecution under the article on participation in an extremist community (Part 2 of Article 282.1) stopped. Butakov acted as a prosecution witness in the case against ex-headquarters photographer Ruslan Akhmetshin, who was sentenced to 2.5 years in a penal colony on charges of rehabilitation of Nazism (Part 2 and Part 4 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code).

• 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).
• As part of the case on the extremist community, the courts chose a preventive measure for former coordinators of Navalny's regional headquarters Liliya Chanysheva , Vadim Ostanin , Zakhara Sarapulov , Ksenia Fadeeva and employee of the Arkhangelsk headquarters Yegor Butakov . Chanysheva and Ostanin are in a pre-trial detention center, Sarapulov, Fadeeva and Butakov are under a ban on certain actions. The former technical director of Navalny LIVE, Daniel Kholodny, is also under arrest. Ex-employee of Navalny's Arkhangelsk headquartersElizaveta Bychkova and volunteer Olga Shkolina were given a written undertaking not to leave.