Translated material
Summary of anti-war repressions. July 2023
Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine has been going on for more than 500 days. Seventeen months ago, immediately after the anti-war protests of the first days of the invasion, an unprecedented wave of repression began inside Russia.
OVD-Info continues to collect and analyze data on persecution for anti-war positions in Russia and on the territory of the annexed Republic of Crimea .
Restrictions on the right to freedom of assembly
We know of 19,062 arrests directly during the protests, and 325 after them. For posts on social networks, private conversations, symbols and more - 360 detentions.
We continue to record cases of violence by security forces. This month, St. Petersburg activist Vitaly Ioffe was beaten during arrest: the activist said that during the arrest he was handcuffed, and one of the police used force on him - inflicted at least three blows to the liver area.
Repression at the legislative level
This month, a bill was introduced to the State Duma that would introduce criminal liability for “public propaganda of extremism and its justification.” If the amendments are adopted, then “justification” and “propaganda” of extremism in the media or on the Internet will be punishable by up to five years in prison. After the initiation of a criminal case, a person will be able to be included in the Rosfinmonitoring register of extremists and terrorists, and his bank accounts will be blocked.
Also, a bill was introduced to revoke citizenship by birth due to convictions for crimes that pose a “threat to national security.” Such crimes include, for example, desertion, discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and calls for extremism.
Criminal cases
During this month, we became aware of 26 new defendants in “anti-war” criminal cases, and another 14 were sentenced.
Those prosecuted in such cases regularly face violence and threats. Thus, Valentin Khoroshenin, accused in the “Vesna” case, is threatened in the pre-trial detention center by other arrestees. He fears for his life. He also has health problems, but he is not receiving medical care. Another person involved in the new Viasna case, Jan Księzepolski, stated that security forces tried to recruit him to the pre-trial detention center.
Artem Kamardin, a defendant in the Mayakovsky case, also spoke about problems with physical and mental health in the pre-trial detention center.
The cell of Sasha Skochilenko, who is in St. Petersburg pre-trial detention center No. 5 in the case of “anti-war price tags,” underwent four searches in two weeks. The transfer of books was also prohibited in the pre-trial detention center. Former MP Alexey Gorinov, convicted of “fakes” about the Russian army, spoke in a letter about being tortured by sleep interruption.
You can read more about the verdicts of those involved in “anti-war” cases at the link .
This month, 45 OVD-Info lawyers helped 64 defendants in 53 criminal “anti-war” cases in 36 cities. Our defenders also attended 6 interrogations.
Administrative Affairs
*According to Mediazona data as of July 20, 2023
Resident of the Ryazan region Konstantin, fined 30 thousand rubles under article 20.3.3. Code of Administrative Offenses, said that security forces threatened him with a pistol. On May 1, Konstantin showed his middle finger to the driver of the car with the letter “Z” and called him a fascist. A week later, security forces came to the man’s home and took him to the department to draw up a report - while FSB officers told Konstantin that “war is necessary and you need to be a patriot and support your country in any situation,” holding a gun to his head.
Retired officer Timofey Rudenko, who was placed under administrative arrest for the seventh time in a year, spoke about torture and threats from security forces. Rudenko reported that police officers used a stun gun on him, and also stated that he could “atone for his guilt before his homeland” by joining the Wagner PMC.
During this month, OVD-Info defenders participated in 137 administrative cases in courts and helped 8 detainees. For example, a lawyer collaborating with us defended those detained on February 24 because of the flower-laying action at the monument to Taras Shevchenko; their cases were dismissed due to the lack of evidence of an offense.
Extrajudicial pressure
“In the country of my dreams, no one wants war” - because of this line, Novgorod officials interrupted the performance of the rock group “Smena” at the “Roll over Ilmen” festival. According to the group members, before the performance, festival participants were required to sign a pledge not to promote “LGBT, extremism, drugs and other nasty things.”
In Novosibirsk, the private educational institution Novokolledzh, whose founder was included in the register of “foreign agents,” was denied state accreditation. Previously, the educational institution refused to conduct “Conversations about Important Things” with students.
The Museum of Moscow evicted the Documentary Film Center from its premises after the museum's management asked the Center's founder, Sofya Kapkova, not to talk about the war.
Politician and teacher Mikhail Lobanov was fired from Moscow State University, citing his “foreign agent” status.
"Foreign agents" and "undesirable organizations"
In this section, we previously published data on the inclusion of “foreign agents” in the register and the recognition of organizations as “undesirable”. Now you can look at these figures in the Chronicle of Political Repressions and Inoteka .
Blockings and censorship
*According to Roskomsvoboda
This month, in particular, the following were blocked: the public of the independent media “Hard Sign of Tambov”, the pages of OVD-Info in Zen and Odnoklassniki , and even a group from Perm school No. 12, where they had previously refused to conduct lessons with the participation of Z-patriots and the military.
The streaming platform Twitch and the cloud service Dropbox were fined for “fakes” about the war in Ukraine - four and two million rubles, respectively.
Yandex.Music has removed the Kavachai podcast about the war in Ukraine, which is produced by the Kholod publication. An administrative protocol was drawn up against the journalist of the “Pskov Province” Vladimir Kapustinsky about discrediting the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code).
Pressure on civil society
In St. Petersburg, Sberbank blocked the accounts of journalist Galina Artemenko, priest Grigory Mikhnov-Voitenko and other people with an anti-war position who collected donations to help refugees from Ukraine. Previously, Sberbank also blocked the accounts of the Solidarity Zone project. The project provides support to those persecuted on charges of committing direct anti-war actions - mainly arson.
The Perm Center for Historical Memory was fined 300,000 rubles under an article of discreditation - the reason was the publication of an anti-war statement by International Memorial and the Memorial Human Rights Center on February 24, 2022.
A new protocol was drawn up for “Ekaterinburg Memorial” under the article on discrediting the Russian army (Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) - in June, “Ekaterinburg Memorial” was already fined twice for 300 and 100 thousand rubles under the same article.
Links to other data and reports from OVD-Info:
- Summary of anti-war repressions. June 2023 , May 2023 , April 2023 , March 2023 , February 2023, January 2023 , December 2022 , October 2022 , September 2022 , August 2022 , July 2022 , June 2022
- Summary of political repressions in Russia. 2022
- Report in Russian “ No to war. How Russian authorities are fighting anti-war protests ."
- The testimony of the Ukrainian “ No war. How the Russian government will fight against anti-war protests ."
- Guide " Anti-war cause ".
- " Report on Children's Civil Rights and Civil Liberties "
- Project on the law on “foreign agents” - “ Inoteka ”.
- Report “ How authorities use cameras and facial recognition against protesters .”
- Reports from OVD-Info and other organizations on the Russian Federation’s compliance with its international obligations in the field of human rights.
- Information on the human rights situation in Russia for the OSCE Moscow Mechanism.
Main photo: Nikolai Borisov at a single picket in Voronezh, July 7, 2023 / Photo courtesy of Nikolai’s friends