Soviet dissident Alexander Skobov was detained in St. Petersburg. According to Fontanka, he is accused of justifying terrorism

Soviet dissident Alexander Skobov was detained in St. Petersburg, human rights activist Yuliy Rybakov, who Skobov was visiting at that moment, told Fontanka.

According to Rybakov, in the evening an investigator and police came to his home with a resolution to initiate a criminal case against Skobov under the article on public justification of terrorism (Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). As Rybakov says, he was not allowed to photograph the document.

According to the human rights activist, Skobov was detained without allowing him to take his diabetes medications with him. Rybakov added that Skobov did not write anything about the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, but “commented a lot on relations between Russia and Ukraine.”

Rybakov’s wife, Ekaterina Molostvova, also reported on Skobov’s arrest at their home on her Facebook page.

• Alexander Skobov is 66 years old. During the Soviet era, he was a political prisoner and a defendant in the latest case under the article about “anti-Soviet agitation.” He was arrested for the first time in 1978 and sent to a psychiatric hospital by a court verdict because of anti-Soviet leaflets. He was released in 1981. In 1985, he was again sent to a psychiatric hospital because of actions with anti-Soviet inscriptions on the walls of buildings. In 1988, his place was searched in connection with the case of anti-Soviet agitation (Article 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR). A year later, the case was closed due to the abolition of the criminal article.
• After the collapse of the USSR, Skobov worked as a history teacher at school, during the Chechen war he was an active participant in the anti-war movement, and was a member of the Yabloko party, from which he left in 2010. With Vladimir Putin coming to power, Skobov opposed the president, and with the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine, he called for help with the Ukrainian army while remaining in Russia. In March 2024, the Russian Ministry of Justice declared Skobov a “foreign agent.” In an interview with Kholod, Skobov said that he would not leave Russia because it gives more weight to his words and he plans to “prove that not every person can be silenced.”