The verdict of the former head of Navalny’s headquarters in Barnaul was approved

Vadim Ostanin was sentenced to nine years in prison for creating an extremist community and participating in an NGO that encourages citizens to commit illegal acts.

On September 29, 2023, the Altai Regional Court approved the sentence of the former head of Alexei Navalny’s headquarters in Barnaul, Vadim Ostanin. Earlier, on July 24, 2023, the Central District Court of Barnaul found Ostanin guilty of creating an extremist community (Part 1 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code) and participation in a non-profit organization whose activities involve inducing citizens to commit illegal actions (Part 3 of Art. 239 CC). He was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment in a general regime colony.

The persecution of Ostanin becameknown on December 28, 2021, when his mother was searched in Biysk, Altai Territory, and he stopped communicating. Later it turned out that the court chose a preventive measure for him in the form of a ban on certain actions as a suspect under Art. 282.1 of the Criminal Code (organization or participation in the activities of an extremist organization) and Art. 239 CC. In May 2021, it became known that Ostanin was transferred to a pre-trial detention center. The case was submitted to the court on February 6, 2023, and the court began its consideration on March 20, 2023. The state prosecutor, during the debate between the parties, which began on June 21, asked the court to sentence Ostanin to 11 years in prison.

The investigation accused Ostanin of collaborating with Navalny’s team in Biysk from April 2017 to September 2018, as well as in Barnaul from September 2019 to April 2021.

Ostanin stated that he ceased to be the headquarters coordinator in April 2021. This did not prevent the investigation from pointing out that he, like the rest of the leaders of Navalny’s structures, continued to participate in the extremist community even after these headquarters were recognized as extremist organizations.

Let us recall that the structures of Alexei Navalny and his supporters - the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), the Foundation for the Defense of Citizens' Rights (FZPG) and Navalny's headquarters - were banned in the summer of 2021 (in our opinion,wrongfully ). And from September 2021, the activities that Navalny’s structures carried out before this ban began to be considered by the Investigative Committee as the activities of an extremist community: then the main investigative department of the Investigative Committee opened a case under Art. 282.1 of the Criminal Code in relation to Navalny himself and a number of his supporters. Then this case was combined with others: on the creation of a non-profit organization, the activities of which involve inducing citizens to commit illegal actions (Part 2 of Article 239 of the Criminal Code), and on the financing of extremism (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code).

Subsequently, the defendants in cases under Art. 282.1 and 239 of the Criminal Code were charged to two dozen regional activists who had previously participated in the activities of Navalny’s structures. Sentences under these articles were handed down to supporters of the politician in Arkhangelsk , Irkutsk , Ufa and Barnaul , as well as Navalny himself and his ally Daniel Kholodny. Since we believe that there were insufficient grounds to recognize the activities of Navalny’s structures as extremist, we consider the prosecution of the politician himself and his supporters in the case of an extremist community to be unlawful (for more information about our position on this case, see here )

Sources

• Criminal case card No. 22-4363/2023 // Altai Regional Court. 2023. September 29.
• Maxim Litavrin. “They continued their extremist activities.” The case of Vadim Ostanin, the former coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters in Barnaul // Mediazona. 2023. July 24.
• Based on materials from social networks.
• Criminal case card No. 1-350/2023 // Central District Court of Barnaul, Altai Territory. 2023. July 24.